CONVERGENT SQUINT IN MYOPIA.
For the ætiology of convergent strabismus it is of interest to ascertain the age at which it is developed, and one of the first results we obtain is the exceptional position which the union of myopia with convergent strabismus takes in this category. Of the 56 cases contained in the above statistics I possess reliable information of the time of commencement in 11 cases; the squint was twice observed before the fourth year of life, once between four and ten years of age, eight times between the tenth and thirty-third years of life.
I must first state prominently with regard to the connection of myopia with convergent squint that I see no reason for holding short sight to be the cause of the squint, as v. Graefe does.
A specially severe strain of the eyes, as v. Graefe assumes, was not traceable in the cases observed by me. Excessive convergence and strain on the accommodation is often enough present in weak sight, for example, in astigmatism without the existence of squint; were short sight in general an inducement to convergent squint these cases would appear much oftener than they actually do, owing to the frequency of myopia. In my opinion the cause of their rarity lies in the fact that myopia is frequently combined with insufficiency of the interni and preponderance of the externi, but only rarely with the reverse condition of the muscles. If, however, a preponderance of the interni develops itself together with the myopia, convergent strabismus is easily produced, for without correction of the myopia by spectacles, the desire for retaining binocular single vision for everything beyond the far point is lessened by the indistinctness of the retinal images. Within the range of their field of distinct vision these squinting myopes frequently retain binocular vision, while the capacity for accepting parallel rays or retaining them for long, is lost.
Strictly speaking, the periodic squint present in these cases is of a peculiar kind, for the binocular single vision present within range of the convergence excludes the notion of squint; the latter only occurs when an object lying outside the point of convergence is fixed. Moreover, according to the common use of language, I have only used the expression periodic convergent squint for the change between a parallel direction of the visual axes and pathological convergence.
As squint in myopia usually commences at an age when binocular fusion has already become a fixed habit, diplopia regularly takes place with it, but patients become more easily accustomed to this than in paralysis of the ocular muscles, because the retinal images are indistinct and the double images in the field of vision always keep at about the same distance, while in paralysis of the ocular muscles the distance is constantly changing.
The myopia, in these cases, is not the cause of the squint, but only a favouring circumstance. If the same preponderance of the interni is developed at the same age in emmetropia, squint is not so easily caused, as the distinct retinal images present in the whole field of vision render it easy to retain binocular single vision. Therefore we see the same form of squint arise less often in emmetropia (see Case 45) when childhood is past, than in myopia. As a rule preponderance of the interni in hypermetropia leads eventually to convergent squint even in childhood.
In emmetropia and hypermetropia convergent strabismus seldom arises after the tenth year (paresis of the abducens of course excepted), therefore in my investigations as to the time of commencement of typical squint I have only considered those patients who came under my treatment before their tenth year. We must rely for the most part on the vague statements of the parents, which lose in exactness in proportion as the origin of the squint is of distant date; moreover, I have myself seen a great many of the children before they were four years old. In this way I have collected reliable information respecting the origin of the squint in 193 cases, and of these (a) 88 cases occurred in children one to three years old, (b) 53 in children three to four years old, (c) 35 cases in children of over four years of age. It is thus at once seen that in the great majority of cases, convergent strabismus commences in children under four years of age, who have not yet begun to read and write, and have no inducement to use their accommodation severely, and still less continuously.