Cantho-plasty as a remedy in certain disease of the eye / by C.R. Agnew.

  • Agnew, Cornelius Rea, 1830-1888.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cantho-plasty as a remedy in certain disease of the eye / by C.R. Agnew. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    life, of giving the diet of the family table to a young child so soon as it can stretch out its hands to gratify its natural gluttonous pro¬ pensities, is here seen to produce one of its many evil results. Such remarks may seem to some to be trite, but they will not cease to be pertinent so long as the evil at which they are aimed con¬ tinues to be so wide-spread. If children when weaned were put first upon a milk and then a milk and farinaceous diet, and not allowed to have the full, promiscuous dietary of adult life, we would see a vast improvement in public health and a lower death- rate. We would, moreover, see less of those forms of self-indulg¬ ence which spring from the uncontrolled selfishness and gluttony that begin at the nursery table. We are prepared to urge, then, in every case of phlyctenular or eruptive inflammation of the conjunctiva, that the diet and regimen be placed upon a hygienic basis. We should also prescribe woolen underclothing, with a change of the same for the night, that the win¬ ter temperature of the domicile need not be kept above 65°. We should improve the action of the skin by alkaline or saline baths and daily friction. We should insist upon daily out-of-door life, and keep the child, when domiciled, in a well-lighted room, warmed, or at least ventilated, if possible, by an open fire in winter, and its eyes free from eyeshades, bandages, poultices, and sugar of lead washes. When I say well-lighted rooms, I do not mean those mid¬ dle or inside rooms in which so many people spend so much time, or in which they incarcerate their children, but outside rooms that are penetrated and purified by direct sunlight. A child should never be allowed, sick or well, to play long or sleep in a room that is not above the ground level and daily pervaded by direct sun¬ light. People who value the lives of their children should select their homes with these things in view. As regards local treatment in these cases of phlyctenular dis¬ ease, solutions of sulphate of atropia, adapted in strength to the age of the subject, will be found of great value. The strength of such solutions may vary from a quarter of a grain to a grain to the ounce of distilled water, and the frequency of instillation, from once a day to four or five times a day, according to the intensity of the symp¬ toms. Two or three times a day the eyes should be bathed with a drachm to the pint solution of common salt, epsom salts, or car¬ bonate of soda, at any agreeable temperature. In many cases the use of levigated calomel by insufflation two or three times a week, will do good. The latter is valuable especially in cases in which