A practical treatise on the diseases of the eye / by William Mackenzie.

  • William Mackenzie
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on the diseases of the eye / by William Mackenzie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    violent and immediately dangerous, or prolonged for a length of time. It is evident, that a dagger, or other weapon, directed outwards, so as to break through the suture between the malar and sphenoid bones into the temporal fossa, or directed downwards, so as to shatter the floor of the orbit, and enter the maxillary sinus, will not be productive of the same amount of dangerous consequences, as when the instru- ment of injury traverses the os planum of the ethmoid, or the orbitary plate of the frontal. I shall speak of gunshot wounds of the orbit separately; but I may here remark, that their effects correspond so far at least with those of common pene- trating wounds, that from both we may occasionally expect haemorrhage, extravasation of blood, blindness, strabismus, syncope, vomiting, coma, convulsions, palsy, death, as imme- diate effects; and as remote effects, fever, delirium, suppura- tion, caries, exfoliation of bone, and the like. 1. Trifling appearance of external wound. A weapon pene- trating through the orbit, may strike deep into the brain, and yet so small an external wound be present, as shall be apt to excite little or no suspicion of danger. Ruysch relates the case of a man, who was wounded in the left orbit, with the end of a stick, not particularly sharp. The injury appeared of little importance; yet the patient died soon after receiving the wound. The magistrates appointed Ruysch to examine the body, in order to discover the cause of the sudden death. Externally, he observed a slight degree of ecchymosis at the upper part of the eye; but on removing the calvarium, he found that the wound had penetrated to a considerable depth into the brain. This, he observes, may happen very easily, on account of the thinness of the upper part of the orbit, in many not thicker than writing paper, and so brittle as to be perforated with the finger. Wounds, therefore, of the orbit, he concludes, are not to be consid- ered as a matter of no moment, especially if the instru- ment by which they are inflicted is not blunt, or if those who are wounded become sleepy, sick, feverish, giddy, or convulsed.* Peter Borel mentions a still more remarkable case, of a man who was wounded with a sword in the left orbit. Think- ing that the wound had not penetrated deep, he merely covered it with a plaster; after which he walked two leagues, and ate and drank heartily with his companions, exactly as if * Ruyschii Observationum Centuria. Obs. 54-. Amstelodami, 1691.
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