Professor Forbes
Extract from a letter of Professor Forbes, of King's College, Aberdeen, Jan. 23rd, 1843:—
"I seized the first hour which I could command after receiving your note to call on Milne, that I might see in what state he was, as I had not heard of him for some time. I was also desirous of having the particulars of his case accurately from himself.
"John Milne was a cooper, and in that capacity had gone with the whale-ships to Davis's Straits and Greenland for sixteen years.
"In July, 1836, he was seized with a violent inflammation in one of his eyes, which soon extended to the other. After two years he became so blind that he could not walk with safety in the streets, and after meeting with a severe accident from his want of sight, he gave up attempting to walk out alone.
"He continued for more than two years in this state, always becoming worse and worse in his sight. His eye-balls were covered with ulcers; he suffered extreme pain, except when lying in bed with the room quite darkened; and was at various times confined for six weeks without being able to bear the admission of light into his room. During the whole of this long period he was under medical treatment by different surgeons without deriving any benefit, but, on the contrary, his case seemed to become daily more hopeless. The only relief, indeed, which he experienced was, he says, from the division of the blood-vessels, from time to time, with which the eye-ball was covered.
"In these circumstances he was brought to you by a surgeon who had attended him, and began, under your direction, the application of the prussic acid vapour. This gave him immediate relief, and in six weeks the whole ulcers had disappeared, light was no longer troublesome to him, and he saw quite well to go about his business and to read.
"This was his state in autumn, 1841, at which time I first saw him, and he continues equally well down to the present date. A slight opacity in the cornea of both eyes still remains, and he cannot expose himself to the blaze of a very bright day or to violent winds for a length of time without experiencing a return of uneasiness. He is, however, quite positive, that had he continued under your care for a sufficient period, he would have quite recovered; and he has been planning a voyage to London to have your additional advice. I discovered, however, from him, that he has never got the prussic acid of sufficient strength since you left this; for it has never had the power of bringing on the state of the eye which the strong acid did, and which he found to be attended with so good effects. I have taken means to get the acid prepared for him of the right strength, and hope that its application will be as efficacious as he so confidently expects.
"N.B.—The patient Milne was brought to me by George Rainy, Esq., Surgeon to the Aberdeen Ophthalmic Institution."