He thought it probable that this deterioration
of the air might act in conjunction with the vivid light in producing
either apoplexy or nervous headache. He found, moreover, that the
actors were subject not only to headache, but also to weakness of
sight and attacks of giddiness, from the action of the powerfully
vivid light evolved from the combustion of gas; and he noted that the
pupils of the eyes of all actors or actresses, who had been two or
three years on the stage, were much dilated; though this, he thought,
might be attributable to the injurious pigments they employed to
heighten their complexions; common rouge containing either red oxide
of lead or the sulphuret of mercury, and white paint being often
composed of carbonate of lead, all of which were capable of acting
detrimentally upon the optic nerve.
The statements of "Chiro-Medicus" may seem somewhat overcharged; yet,
after allowance has been made for that exaggerated way of putting the
case which seems habitual to "the faculty" when it takes up with a new
theory, a sufficient residuum of fact remains to justify many of the
doctor's remarks.
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