A centenary celebration, whether of persons or of events, always creates in our young country a special interest. The privilege, therefore, of taking even a small part in celebrating the hundredth birthday of the Medical Society of Tennessee is very great, a privilege which I appreciate highly.
The subject of my address was assigned to me by your agreeable and efficient chairman ; otherwise, I would never have had the temerity to attack this problem because of its voluminous literature, the confusion of chronic and acute conditions, the insertion of many cases of general optic neuritis in the reports and the variance of opinion concerning its etiology, its pathology and the best method of dealing with the lesion.
The acute form of this malady will not be included in this discussion, because it is often unilateral and rapid in development, recovery is the rule (often spontaneously), and it does not present