EFFECTS OF ULTRASONIC WAVES ON THE REFRACTIVE MEDIA OF THE EYE

Abstract

A PROGRAM of experimental research has been undertaken in cooperation with the Department of Physics at the Catholic University of America to study the production and possible clearing of opacities in the refractive media of the eye by means of ultrasonic irradiation. Although up to the present it has not been possible to clear such opacities, significant findings have been obtained in the study of the effects of intense ultrasonic waves in excised calves' eyes. It is the purpose of this paper to report this work at its present stage of development. The term ultrasonics designates sound waves having a frequency beyond the audible range, i. e., above 30,000 cps. Although ultrasonic waves differ from ordinary audible sound only by having a higher frequency and smaller wave length, these properties greatly influence their propagation through matter. Much information about the behavior of different media has been obtained using ultrasonic waves