A guide to the practical study of diseases of the eye : with an outline of their medical and operative treatment / by James Dixon.

  • Dixon, James, 1813-1896.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A guide to the practical study of diseases of the eye : with an outline of their medical and operative treatment / by James Dixon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    PTERYGIUM. ] 3 plexus of vessels. It is rare to meet with an old person in whom some slight deposit of this kind may not be discovered. If the surgeon be consulted on the subject, he may always reassure the patient as to the innocent nature of the growths. They never overstep the margin of the cornea, and need not in any way be interfered with. The term Pinguecula has been applied to them. DISEASES OF THE CONJUNCTIVA. PTERYGIUM.* This growth consists in a thickening of the con- junctiva and subjacent areolar tissue, with enlarge- ment of the vessels of the part, and, probably, the formation of new fibrous tissue; it is hardly ever met with except at the inner side of the globe, where it assumes the form of a triangular reddish patch on the white of the eye; the base corresponding to the plica semilunaris, and the apex reaching to the edge of the cornea, or even a little way beyond it. In a large pterygium, the sclerotic portion, when closely examined, resembles a delicate, thinly-ex- panded layer of muscle, intermixed with a few glistening aponeurotic fibres. The apex is obtusely rounded off, opaque and whitish in texture, and so firmly attached to the cornea as to look almost like * The best representation of a pterygium I am acquainted with, is that by Sichel, pi. xxvi., fig. 1. It is, however, rather exaggerated. Daletmple's figures (figs. 2 & 3, pi. iii.) are very indifferent.