Spontaneous Cures of Hopeless Diseases

Abstract

Spontaneous cures, being nature's technic of curing, are of immense theoretical and practical interest. Hamburger's idea of collecting from the ophthalmic literature and from his personal experience hopeless cases in which the conditions have healed spontaneously is a felicitous one. Of the cases reported, the following are worthy of mention : three cases of sympathetic ophthalmia in which the condition disappeared during an attack of an acute febrile disease ; one case of severe tuberculosis of the cornea and conjunctiva which cleared up after an attack of erysipelas of the face ; another case of the same type in which the condition disappeared after a severe tuberculin anaphylaxis ; a case of recurrent hemorrhages in the vitreous in which the condition was cleared up by repeated venesections ; a few cases of severe trachoma with pannus which cleared up by an induced gonorrheic ophthalmia ; one case of optic atrophy in which the patient