Two cases of congenital night-blindness

Abstract

In the recent communication of my paper on a “Fourth Sensation in Colour Vision,” in April last, attention was called to the case of night-blind eyes as throwing light on the question of the functions of the rods and cones in the retina in regard to colour and colourless vision. I cited two cases of congenital stationary night-blindness, which, through the kindness of Mr. Nettleship, were brought to my laboratory for examination in view of certain researches in which Prof, (now Colonel) Watson and myself were together interested. As Colonel Watson has been long at the Front in France, and as he conducted a principal part of the only partially completed examination, I hesitated to give the details without his collaboration. I have now obtained his acquiescence in my request that I should communicate the results obtained to the Royal Society. I now do so. As a matter of fact, I had worked out the observations before my colleague left me for the Front some 2½ years ago, and these results I have put in the following communication: I may say that any other form of night-blindness than those to which the late Mr. E. Nettleship introduced us would have been useless for the investigation on which we were engaged, as, if it were not so, night-blindness due to disease might call in question some of the deductions to be made. Mr. Nettleship’s investigations of the family to which they belonged, and its history, left no doubt that we were dealing in our two cases with genuine cases of congenital stationary types.