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.

    60/444 (page 42)
    peen running to it from the margin of the cornea : theise are vessels of repair, and ought when they has'e accom- pHshecl their duty to become so reduced and contracted as to cease to be visible, or to interfere with the normal transparency of the cornea. Gradually the opacity of the healing ulcer is reduced, and day by day the parts slowly become clearer, until at length complete or partial trans- parency is restored. These ulcers of the cornea are gene- rally acute at their onset, but they will often drift into the chronic state. Superficial Transparent Ulcers of the Cornea.—Lhe symptoms which accompany the formation and progress of these ulcers resemble those of the nebulous ulcer just described, and they occur amongst the same class of patients. There is the same photophobia and lachry- mation, with redness of the eye on exposure to hght, the only characteristic diflference being the appearance of the nicer. On gently raising the lids so as to examine the eye, the epithelium of the cornea seems as if it were abraded or scratched off at one or more points. Ihe transparency and ]3ohsh of the cornea at this stage ot the disease is unimpaired, and each ulcer, if there be more than one, is seen as a glistening facet, ihe farst indication of a healing action in these ulcers is shown by their losing their transparency and becoming grey and cloudy; the cloudiness often extending beyond the margin of the ulcer. Their clear outline is soon lost, their slight excavation filled in, and the even surface of the -cornea is restored. If the ulcer has not pene- trated below the epitheUum, transparency is regained; but if it has extended into the true corneal structure, a nebula or semi-transparent leucoma will be afterwards *^ Treaiment.-Soothmg applications to the eye. which may be used either hot or cold, m accordance with the feelings of the patient. Fotus papavens lotio bella- donuiS (F. 39) ; or if there be great irritability, the gutt« atropias (F. 15) dropped into the eye three or four times daily All stimulating drops or lotions are injurious. In children, an alterative powder of hydrarg. cum creta cum rheo (F. 148, 149), given every second or third nio-ht, is very beneficial. If the skm be hot and the tongue furred, the mist, salin.. or mist, antimonu tar- tarati (F 131 132), should be ordered; but as soon as tlie secretions have become healthy, bark, the mineral acids,