La curación prodigiosa de la ciega de Villafranca / The prodigious recovery of the blind woman of Villafranca

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[Methods used and abandoned in glaucoma]. / Metode încercate si abandonate în glaucom.

The discovery of the disease called glaucoma dates back to the 17th century. Its important role as a cause of blindness has been known since the 19th century. Initial comprehension of this pathogenesis and treatment belong to the 20th century. Its prevention will hopefully be the work of the 21st century.

Jesus and the eye: New Testament miracles of vision.

PURPOSE: To compile and appraise the accounts of the miracles of vision in the New Testament. METHODS: We carried out a critical analysis of the compilation of ocular miracles using past medical knowledge and historical reconstruction based on the accounts of the apostles and of various historians living in the first three centuries ad. RESULTS: Three blind adult male beggars residing on three different street locations were described. Two had previously had good vision that had declined over a long time and the third had been born blind. The manifestations of the ocular diseases in these cases were meagre, precluding any precise diagnosis. The healing methodology did not rely on physical examination, detailed history, or the use of medicines. Jesus' tools consisted of spitting, touching, praying and the use of words. Visual outcome reported as a complete cure was realized in all three incidents. CONCLUSIONS: The accounts of miracles in the Gospels appear to be historically reliable, yet subject to different interpretations: faith in the miracle (the Christian perspective); sorcery (the Jewish perspective); mythology (the atheist perspective), and scientifically possible human action by a charismatic, compassionate, knowledgeable man (the scientific perspective: psychotherapy or suggestion).

Blindness prevention programmes: past, present, and future.

Blindness and visual impairment have far-reaching implications for society, the more so when it is realized that 80% of visual disability is avoidable. The marked increase in the size of the elderly population, with their greater propensity for visually disabling conditions, presents a further challenge in this respect. However, if available knowledge and skills were made accessible to those communities in greatest need, much of this needless blindness could be alleviated. Since its inception over 50 years ago, and beginning with trachoma control, WHO has spearheaded efforts to assist Member States to meet the challenge of needless blindness. Since the establishment of the WHO Programme for the Prevention of Blindness in 1978, vast strides have been made through various forms of technical support to establish national prevention of blindness programmes. A more recent initiative, "The Global Initiative for the Elimination of Avoidable Blindness" (referred to as "VISION 2020--The Right to Sight"), launched in 1999, is a collaborative effort between WHO and a number of international nongovernmental organizations and other interested partners. This effort is poised to take the steps necessary to achieve the goal of eliminating avoidable blindness worldwide by the year 2020.

"The man who made Peekskill famous": Dr. C.R. Johnston--first blind chiropractor.

Can a blind person be taught the art and science of chiropractic? If so, can a blind chiropractor be successful in practice? In 1918, Charles Robinson "C.R." Johnston, at the age of thirty-nine, was graduated from the Palmer School of Chiropractic--becoming not only the first blind D.C., but also one of the best known and most successful of his era. He practiced for twenty-five years in the small Hudson Valley community of Peekskill, New York, where his reputation as a "miracle healer" attracted hundreds of patients each week. The local press dubbed him "The Man Who Made Peekskill Famous." C.R. Johnston had come a long way from the Nevada mining camp where he was born. Accidentally blinded at age twenty-seven, he achieved notable success as a merchant before seeming to defy logic in choosing to begin again in a controversial new profession. But his attainments in chiropractic became equally inspirational... and the stuff of legend.

[The authentication of modern Japanese acupuncture].

The Meiji government that modernized Japan decided the direction which adopted western medicine positively and eliminated Oriental medicine, and carried out the policy to inhibit acupuncture (1874). However, there was no concrete system until 1885, when the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a report to entrust the permission and superintendance of acupuncture to each prefecture. On the other hand, modern education for the blind was begun in various parts of the country in 1878, and acupuncture was adopted as a vocational course. The Rakuzenkai Blind School began Anma and acupuncture in 1881, but in 1885 acupuncture was removed from the curriculum and put under the direct control of the Ministry of Education. The principal of the school, Ryokichi Yatabe, had doubts about this and sent a question to Tokyo Imperial University. The answer to it (1887) was to recognize acupuncture, and this recognition became an admission of the revival of acupuncture in the course of blind education and the basis of the thought in legislation for modern Japanese acupuncture. There is a high possibilty that the reply to Yatabe was influenced by the article of Sansaku Okumura (1864-1912), a blind man in Kanazawa City, which appeared in the 157th issue of "Iji Shimbun" (1885).

Was Saint Paul struck blind and converted by lightning?

In the Bible, St. Paul (Saul of Tarsus) was struck blind by a light from heaven. Three days later his vision was restored by a "laying on of hands." The circumstances surrounding his blindness represent an important episode in the history of religion. Numerous theories have been proposed to account for this event which has been the subject of interest of theologians, philosophers, artists, and physicians. A lightning strike could explain all of the features of this episode. The proposal of a theory which correlates St. Paul's symptoms with contemporary scientific knowledge makes his recovery of vision and conversion no less miraculous or religiously significant since the theory demonstrates that, indeed, the event may have occurred exactly as stated in the Bible.

Didymus the blind: an unknown precursor of Louis Braille and Helen Keller.

The present study presents the case of Didymus the Blind, worthy author, philosopher and theologian of the 4th century AD. Blinded by ophthalmia at the age of four years, Didymus succeeded in achieving great learning in the philosophical and natural sciences. He began his education by using a system which was remarkably like Braille, that is reading letters engraved into the surface of wood by touch and subsequently furthering his knowledge by listening. This learning process of Didymus the Blind appears as the precursor of Louis Braille who invented the educational system of reading embossed dots by touch. Like Didymus, Braille lost his vision in infancy (at three years of age). Another parallel of Didymus' career and written works is found in the example and achievements of Helen Keller.

[The case of Maria Theresia Paradis (1759-1824). On the treatment of (hysterical?) amaurosis in a musician with music and suggestion]. / Der Fall der Maria Theresia Paradis (1759-1824). Zur Behandlung einer (hysterischen?) Amaurose bei einer Musikerin mit Musik und Suggestion.

The musician and composer Maria Theresia Paradis (1759-1824) blind since her earliest childhood was treated in 1777 by the physician Dr. Franz-Anton Mesmer (1734-1815). The treatment he used was the so-called "magnetic therapy". This was a suggestive psychotherapeutical method by which, as he thought, the amaurosis could be cured. The most essential agency of this "magnetic therapy" was music. However, the resistance of both his colleagues and the patient's family forced him to break off the therapy. Maria Theresia Paradis remained blind till the end of her life. The genesis of the amaurosis, the problem of a real therapeutical influence by Mesmer and, especially, the relationship between the music as a therapeutical medium and the musical personality of the patient are discussed in detail. The whole care cannot be cleared up definitively. There are many indications that Mesmer succeeded in improving temporarily a hysterical amaurosis of Maria Theresia Paradis.

[Medieval ophthalmology in the St. Gallen monastery. 2]. / Mittelalterliche Augenheilkunde im Kloster St. Gallen. 2. Teil.

From the 9th century on, the abbey of St. Gallen had a hospital. Reports of miraculous cures and the prescriptions that have remained give us many informations about how eye diseases were treated.