TELL-TALE EYES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5127, 18 May 1927, Page 4

TELL-TALE EYES.

DISEASE SHOWN BY LIGHT RAYS.

The popular myth that ophthalmic surgeons remove eyes, scrape or treat them, and replace them, was exploded when the Royal Westminster Pphthalmic Hospital gave a demonstration of its methods and apparatus.

Although frequently spoken of, and although people can always be met who believe they have been the subject of such an operation, it never has been done, was said by one of the hospital’s leading surgeons. This 100-year-old hospital is appealing for £60,000 of the £130,000 required to move into a fine new building which is being erected at Broad Street, London.

Among its wonderful apparatus is a ring magnet for extracting metal from the eye. The head of the patient is placed within the magnet, current is switched on, and a metal instrument collects the fragment of metal.

Another instrument is a lamp that directs a powerful pencil of light into the eye-. An artist peeps along the ray and makes'a water-colour painting of what he sees. This helps, the diagnosis of diseases not associated with the eye as well as eye diseases.

What appeared to be a patch of light in the red, veined cavern painted by the artist indicated nicotine poisoning. “It may give you hope to know that this rarely occurs through cigarette smoking,” said the surgeon, “and is usually found in cases, of excessive pipe or cigar smoking. The eye is affected through the system and not because smoke curls near the eye.” Of the .hospital’s 940 operations in 1925, 423 dealt with cataract, which is nearly always curable by an operation.

In the new hospital people who cannot afford the high fees of specialists but do not want to accept charity can arrange to pay fees based on their incomes. There will be provision for music and suitable’ games, and a sun-parlour, built in a roof garden 100 ft long; where patients will walk on soft turf and among flowers.