The Analysis of Dispersion of Cataract and Treatment in Qajar Period from the Perspectives of Foreign Tourists

Qajar period coincided with widespread relationships between Iran and foreign countries. Thus, this change made suitable conditions for commuting of foreign tourists. The tourists recorded their observations and experiences about common illness and their treatment, which helped to acknowledge that period's medical history. Those records suggested cataracts as one of the common illnesses in the old population and harmed their eye lens. This research studies the prevalence of such an illness and its treatment regarding those records.

The Qajar period's important foreign travelogues were analyzed by descriptive-analytic method for this research.

Different purposes and motivations did the tourists' journeys during the Qajar period. These tourists offered helpful and detailed reports about every aspect of their social life with their curiosity and particular spirit. The degrees of infection and the treatments were reflected in the tourists' works. These tourists shed light on the spread of this illness in society and gave the modern findings to the Iranian doctors.

Cataract was a common illness in the Qajar period. This illness was common in the regions such as Isfahan, Tehran, Mazandaran, and Urmia. Persian ophthalmologists and foreign doctors treated this illness. The Persian ophthalmologists were somehow skillful in treating cataracts, but the methods were not satisfactory. In return, the European doctors had an undeniable role in treating the individuals who were victims of cataracts by adopting new surgery techniques using facilities of medical centers of religious missions.