Show 5 AN OCULAR ANESTHETIC Plunging an Unfelt Knife Into the Ball of the Eye The main lecture hall of the Cooper Medical College was filled yesterday with students and practicing physicians who were attracted by the announcement that Dr H Knapp Professor of Ophthalmology Ophthalmol-ogy of the University New York would deliver ajecture on the eye during the Barkan hour Dr Knapp who is one of the most noted oculists in the United States said that when he was asked by Dr Barkan to occupy his hour with the class of the college he did not expect to have for his auditors so many practicing physicians or he would have prepared himself differently His lecture was listened with intense interest and when the hour was consumed his offer to continue con-tinue the discussion of his subjectfor half an hour was enthusiastically applauded The only demonstration which the lecturer lec-turer made was with the hydrate of cocaine co-caine as first applied by Dr Kollb of Vienna Vi-enna for rendering the eyeball insensible insensi-ble Cocaine is a colorless liquid and produces no effect apparent to the patient when applied to the ball of the eye The purpose of the demonstration made by the lecturer yesterday upon an eye of one of the students was to show that the dilation dila-tion of the pupil under the effect of cocaine co-caine was similar in appearance to that produced by an excitation of the sympathetic sympa-thetic nerve Incidentally the lecturer spoke of the wonderful anaesthetic properties prop-erties of cocaine Four drops of the colorless color-less fluid applied to the ball of the eye renders that generally sensitive organ as insensible to the touch or the knife of the operator as a piece of wood held in the hand Underits effect the eye may be handled cut or treated in any manner while the patient in every other particular particu-lar is fully conscious and while even the sightof the eye remains In a recent operation for a patient suffering acute neuralgic pains in the eye cocaine was applied a delicate spearhead knife was plunged into the eyeball withdrawn a suctioncup was applied over the wound thus made and some pus withdrawn from a sac in the eye which the knife had punctured and all the while the patient mentally fully conscious chatted pleasantly pleas-antly with the operator as insensible of the operation as though it were being performed on his hatband |