Cure of Gutta Serena.

CURE OF GUTTA SERENA.

HAVING experienced a very extraordinary cure of gutta serena, I feel it a duty which I owe to God and my neighbour to give it great publicity. Already have I made it known to several medical men high in the profession, to many of my correspondents, and to several who are now labouring under the distressing malady from which I have been mercifully restored. But this does not satisfy me: I wish the remedy which has been so successful in my case to be universally known. I am far from supposing that it will succeed in every case of gutta serena ; but as it has succeeded in mine, and since my recovery, in two others also,-one perfectly, and the other partially, so far, that the latter person referred to is able to read a common sized print,-I am encouraged to hope, that the publication may prove a great blessing to many who are now literally "walking in darkness a state of affliction, the horrors of which can only be correctly estimated by those who have been deprived of sight. In addition to the conviction of my own mind, that I ought not to conceal so great a benefit, I have been long and frequently urged by many pious and intelligent friends to send it forth into the world; but that which finally determined my conduct in this case, was the request of the brethren assembled in our As a member of that conferlate conference held at Leeds. ence, and one who concurred in this request, you will, I doubt not, feel great pleasure in giving it efficiency by allowing to my very extraordinary case a place in the pages of your valuable and widely extended miscellany.

I am, dear sir, affectionately yours,

Bristol, Sept. 8, 1824.

JACOB STANLEY.

Remarkable cure of Amaurosis, or Gutta Serena, in the case of the Rev. JACOB STANLEY, Wesleyan Methodist minister, now in Bristol. In the month of September, 1813, when stationed in the Liverpool circuit, one night, whilst I slept, I was attacked by gutta Of this I had no previous intimation; my sight, till that time, having been perfectly good, and my general health excellent; with the exception of occasional headaches, to which I had been more or less subject from my childhood.

serena.

The disease

affected my left eye only. When I awoke I perceived light from the corners of my eye; but before it were spots of various kinds; some gilded, and some black; and a large black body resembling, sometimes, flakes of soot, and at other times, a piece At first I thought some matter had of fringed black gauze. collected on the surface of the eye; but after wiping it with my handkerchief, and washing it with water, I found the cause lay deeper.

I applied to a respectable medical friend in Liverpool, who pronounced it gutta serena. His opinion was confirmed by one highly distinguished in the profession at Dudley; to whom I made a journey on that occasion. I was put under an alterative course of medicine; took a kind of mercurial snuff; was electrified in the eye by sparks, and had the electric fluid poured in from a wooden point; had a solution of cayanne dropped into it twice a day; and was repeatedly blistered in the temples and behind the ears. From these means I certainly derived some benefit; but the process being tedious and confining, and ill comporting with my public duties, and finding that my right eye continued good, I deliberately camé to the resolution to pass through life with one eye; a resolution which I have lived long enough to regret.

In the latter end of the year 1816, in consequence of preaching one evening in wet clothes, I caught cold, which induced gutta serena in my right eye. The spots and the cloud hindered distinct vision. After a few days I was nearly blind. I became alarmed; and applied to an eminent oculist, Mr. Ware, of London, from whom I received much kindness, and to whom I feel myself under very great obligations. The means employed by him were in a few weeks effectual to the perfect restoration of my sight.

From that time, at intervals, I was repeatedly threatened with the total loss of sight; but a prompt recurrence to the remedies prescribed by Mr. Ware, always succeeded in parrying the threatened evil; till Sunday, May 18, 1823, when being at Stroud, preaching in aid of the Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School in that place, the cloud returned, and owing to certain engagements, which it would be of no importance to state, I was unable to have recourse to those means which in former cases had been successful, till the following Thursday evening, when I tried the usual remedies and found them utterly ineffectual. The disease had acquired a degree of strength and obstinacy which bade defiance to them. After vainly attempting to cure myself, I thought it advisable to place myself once more under the care of Mr. Ware. I did so; and after five weeks residence in London, returned to Bristol convalescent. I could see to read even a newspaper without the aid of glasses. The first sabbath after my return I imprudently ventured to preach twice, and to administer the Lord's supper; and again to preach the following evening, in one of our large chapels. These three services undid all that had been done. I instantly had recourse to the remedies which had been successful, and received my sight I preached again, and became blind.-Again I blistered, and saw; then preached and became blind. Thus I proceeded, alternately preaching and becoming blind; and blistering, and

Cure of Gutta Serena.

receiving my sight; till I found myself reduced to this alternative: either, for the present at least, to cease to preach, or to become blind altogether. I chose the former in the latter end of July, 1823. But, having trifled so long, the disease had become so obstinate as to resist the efficacy of all former remedies. At this time a highly esteemed medical friend in Bristol, deeply interested himself in my behalf, and put me under a very powerful alterative course, and also caused a seton to be made in my neck, which was kept open for eight months. In addition to this, leeches were frequently applied to my temples; and, occasionally, blisters to my right temple; I also used the mercurial snuff; was electrified in the eye twice a day for about two months; and used two or three different lotions. Sometimes I could see, even well enough to read a few lines of clear and strong print: and then in the space of an hour was not able to distinguish a blank from a printed page. Frequently, by the light of the noonday sun I have not been able to distinguish the features of my own family within a distance of two feet. My feelings, at such times, though in general I succeeded in concealing them, were such as it is not in the power of language to describe.

In this state, I visited my daughter, Mrs. Baldwin, at Stourport, when a young friend who had been afflicted with gutta I expected to find her serena in one eye, called to see me. blind in that eye; but, instead of this, I found to my astonishment and joy that she was nearly restored; at least, so far that she could see both to read and work without difficulty. I inquired by what means she had recovered her sight; and she informed me, as I understood her, that it was by the application of a large blister to the spine. I resolved that, on my return to Bristol, I would try it. I did so; and the effect was astonishing. I felt its operation on my eye in the course of the night. It produced a tremulous sensation: a sensation which I cannot better describe than by calling it a prickling sensation; only without pain. But when I awoke, what were my astonishment and delight, when, for the first time, I was able to discern the figures and colours upon the curtains and carpet, and the paper of the room! I say the first time; for we had removed into that house during my affliction. And what were the joy and surprise of my family, when, after the devotions of the morning, I took a book and read eight or ten pages together, without glasses and without difficulty! Of the feelings of that morning, I have, and ever shall have, a most lively, and joyous, and grateful rememberance!

I repeated the blister, nine inches long, and about three or four broad, upon the spine, from the shoulder downwards, once a week, for five or six weeks in succession; until the optic nerve acqui

red a steady tone, and ceased to be subject to those fluctuations which had characterised it in former times.-When I returned from London in July 1823, so far restored as to be able to read the small print of a newspaper; such was the state of the nerve, that either mental or bodily exertion would soon produce comparative blindness. As soon as I suffered my mind to fix itself intensely on any subject, or proceeded to any thing like a regular chain of ratiocination, I found the cloud return; and was instantly under the necessity of traversing my thoughts, and of discontinuing all consecutive thinking. But now, and for many months past, neither mental nor bodily exertion injures me at all. I can pursue my studies and labours as well as ever I could, without inconvenience. I confess I am a wonder to myself and to many!

Before I conclude this paper I beg leave to remark two things: first, among the various means employed I am persuaded I have derived, all along, more benefit from blistering than from any thing else. This I did in the case of my left eye at Liverpool, which I entirely lost, I now believe, for want of perseverance in blistering and this also have I done in the present case. I will not say that I derived no benefit from cupping or leeching, or mercurial snuff, or electricity, or a seton, and various other things included in the remedial process to which I have been subjected; but I do say that I have always derived the most immediate and sensible benefit from blisters; and ultimately, under God, it was a blister nine inches long and three or four inches broad, which restored me to that happy state of vision which I now possess.

Secondly: My own dulness of apprehension, or the treachery of my memory, or both, were the means employed, by an overruling providence, to effect a perfect cure. I have stated above, that I received my information from a young friend at Stourport. So I thought. But on a late visit to that place, I sent for that friend to inquire from whom she received the advice to blister the spine a remedy which, as far as I had been able to ascer tain, had not been employed either by oculists or physicians, in Bristol or London ;-when, to my utter surprise, she told me she had never had a blister on her spine; that she never had said she had one there; and that it was quite impossible she could have said so; but that she had told me she had a blister on the back part of her neck. The word back occasioned the mistake. Back and spine were associated in my mind; and hence the application of the blister to the spine; which probably was the only part where such an application would, in my case, have been successful. The Lord can, not only make the wickedness of men to praise him, but also overrule their inattention or stupidity to the healing of their diseases. I owe my cure to my blunder; or, to speak more correctly, to the special providence

of God, who appointed or permitted it, to confer upon me this great benefit; which, having freely received, I freely communicate; most earnestly praying, that it may be as successful in restoring sight to others, as it has been in restoring that inestimable blessing to me.

There are three considerations which ought to induce persons similarly afflicted to make the experiment. First, The success which has already attended it in my case, and in the case of two others, at least. Secondly, The remedy is perfectly innocent: if it do no good, it will do no harm. Thirdly, A discharge from the back, occasioned by a piece of skin being rubbed off through long confinement to bed, restored a woman afflicted with amaurosis, or gutta serena, to sight, in the Bristol Infirmary, in the year 1817: an interesting account of which was published in "The London Medical Repository for January, 1824," by J. C. Pritchard, M. D.: which case furnishes a strong presumption that blistering will be of essential benefit. To which I might add, that several medical men, with whom I have conversed on the subject, agree in thinking that it is very likely in many cases to succeed.-Wesleyan Methodist Mag.

RELIGIOUS AND MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.

REPUBLIC OF HAYTI.

As considerable exertions are now making by many of the citizens of NewYork, and elsewhere, to encourage the emigration of free coloured people to Hayti, in consequence of the flattering offers made by PRESIDENT BOYER, We think it expedient to present our readers the following information respecting the religious freedom enjoyed there. We had indeed hoped, and we still hope, that the time is not far distant, when the shackles will be broken, even in this place, and when the light of the pure gospel "shall have free course,” to “run and be glorified" among the inhabitants of Hayti. Of the benevolent disposition of President Boyer, who appears to be an enlightened statesman, and a friend to suffering humanity, we are not disposed to doubt; but that there is, from some quarter, a strong counteracting influence exerted to prevent the full display of his good intentions, we are equally well satisfied. Neither do we mean to advise our coloured friends not to emigrate, if they are satisfied that their condition may be thereby meliorated, but we wish them, before they embark in this undertaking, to understand the true state of the case in regard to the religious privileges they are likely to enjoy.

A mission was sent by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, to Port-au-prince, in 1816, which, at first, promised success; but after contending with a variety of difficulties, the missionaries, without any act of imprudence, either real or pretended,† (for they were dismissed very courteously by

* See Methodist Magazine, Vol. IV. p. 14.

It has indeed been stated verbally, that the society had provoked the wrath of their enemies by imprudent conduct, by indulging too much the warmth of their feelings in their devotional. exercises; but we consider this an idle report," as it has never been alleged in any correspondence on this subject, nor pretended to the missionaries themselves, as we had an opportunity 10

VOL. VIII.