For almost a century ophthalmologists have had under consideration the vascular system in relation to retinitis pigmentosa. For many years the condition was believed to be mainly local. More recently a consideration of glandular disturbance, cerebral abnormalities, cerebral malfunction, deafness and congenital disfigurations crept into the picture, and it has been considered that retinitis pigmentosa is only part of a general disease picture.
From the standpoint of therapy the interest still centers on the vascular picture in the eye, and practically all treatment has been designed to improve, directly or indirectly, the circulation in the choriocapillaris.
The use of atropine sulfate retrobulbarly is not new. Abadie1 employed the drug in 1923 in the treatment of atrophy of the optic nerve and reported a good result.
Samkowski2 treated syphilitic atrophy in a number of cases with retrobulbar injections, hoping to achieve a local orbital hyperemia. He thought that his