IMPORTANCE OF DIET IN THE ETIOLOGY AND TREATMENT OF TOBACCO-ALCOHOL AMBLYOPIA

Abstract

It is my purpose to present the results of a clinical investigation which I think is unusual and, judged by older ideas, quite unorthodox. For more than two years patients with tobacco-alcohol amblyopia have been allowed to continue their usual intake of tobacco and alcohol provided they consumed the diet prescribed for them. This work has been carried out slowly and cautiously. All the patients have been hospitalized throughout the period that they were permitted to smoke and drink. The course has been carefully followed by frequent examinations of the visual fields and visual acuity. The daily intake not only of tobacco and alcohol but of every component of their diet over this entire period of hospitalization is accurately known. First, the previous studies, not made by ophthalmologists, which have a bearing on this subject will be considered. Nine years ago the suggestion was made¹ that vitamin deficiency