Diseases and injuries of the eye : their medical and surgical treatment / by George Lawson.

  • George Lawson
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases and injuries of the eye : their medical and surgical treatment / by George Lawson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/444 (page 2)
    by the finger, one or two streaks of pus or Ij'mpli will be often seen in the oculo-palpebral fold. The patient com- ]3lains that the lids are sticky, and that in the morning they are gummed together by dried secretion. On look- ing at the eyes, there is a peculiar sticky and gummy appearance which is quite characteristic of the disease. There is often associated with these symptoms chemosis of the conjunctiva and swelling of the lids._ The con- junctiva looks blown np from the serous eli'usion into the subjacent cellular tissue, sometimes to an extent suthcient to make the cornea appear sunken below it. The cornea is clear, and the pupil is active. The rapid action of the pupil will at once decide that the inflammation is super- ficial and that the iris is not affected by it. Catarrhal ophthalmia usually commences in both eyes simultaneously, or one eye may be attacked a little in ad- vance of the other, but it is seldom that this disease is limited to only the one eye; lu this respect catarrhal ophthalmia ofters a marked difference from gouorrhoeal ophthalmia, which is generally, in the first instance, strictly confined to the one eye. (See Gonorrh(Eal Oph- thalmia, page 9.) ^ 1 . Frorjnosis—This affection is usually very amenaole to proper treatment, and the eyes wdl recover without a trace of the disease remaining. But if no treatment be adopted, or unsuitable remedies be used, the conjunctival inflammation may extend to the cornea, and corneitis with superficial or deep ulcerations may follow. Ti-eatneid.—The eyes should be bathed every two or three hours, or oftener if the case is severe, with a lotion of alum, or sulphate of zinc and alum (F. 4o, 4b, 48), taking care that with each application a little is allowed to flow into the eyes. In the intervals between the times for using the lotion, the eyes may be bathed with cold water, to keep them free from the discharge. A solution of nitrate of silver, gr. i or gr. 2 ad aqure 51,1s very useful iu catarrhal ophthalmia, and esj^ecially m those cases where there is chemosis of tlie conjunctiva and swelling ot the lids. Two or three drops should be dropped into tlie eye twice a day, and every two or three hours, or ottener if necessary, the eyes should be cleansed from discharge by bathing them with cold water. To prevent the gum- miu<- tocrether oF the evelids during sleep, a little unguent, cetarei or va,seline should be smeared along their tarsal borders every night. At the commencement ot the attack