On epithelial xerosis of the conjunctiva / by Sydney Stephenson.

  • Stephenson, Sydney, 1862-1923.
Date:
[1898]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On epithelial xerosis of the conjunctiva / by Sydney Stephenson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    sheen ; it was ovalj and measured 2'5 mm, by 2 mm. It could be scraped away‘almost completely. The eye was neither painful, tender, nor reddened. Perception of light was lacking ; tension was normal. The patient was again seen some ten months later (August, 1897), when no change was found to have taken place in the condition of things. Upon this occasion xerosis bacilli were demon- strated in smear-preparations and in cultivations made from the central white plaque. When examined three months later (November, 1897) the left eye had become convergent to the extent of about 20°, while the curious little patch had almost disappeai’ed from the cornea. Before passing away from the sub]ect, the fact should perhaps be mentioned that Schreibor claims to have found this organism in gangrene, soft sores, and in pus both from gonorrhoea and from an ulcer of the leg (Krienes [14]), The experimental evidence, as far as it goes, is dead against the pathogenicity of these bacilli, both as regards men and the lower animals. Kuschbert and Neisser, for example, inoculated, but without success, the conjunctiva of dogs and of rabbits. Fraenkel and Frauke, again, injected the bacilli into the veins, peritoneal cavity, anterior chamber, and under the conjunctiva of rabbits, guinea-pigs, and mice, but without i*esult; they inti’o- duced the organism into the human conjunctival sac, also with negative effects. Cirincione’s (15) investiga- tions, too, lead him to believe that the organisms have no pathogenic power in respect of the conjunctiva. Gallenga (16) found that they gave rise to no disease, unless associated with staphylococci, when grafted into the eyes of rabbits. Piltz (17) and Braunschweig (18) inoculated the human conjunctiva without setting up any local disease. My own experiments upon the human conjunctiva confirm the statements made by these various writers. They were divided into three classes : first, attempts to set up xerosis in the second eye of a patient with one