Treatise on the diseases of the eye, including the anatomy of the organ / by Carl Stellwag von Carion ; translated from the fourth German edition and edited by D.B. St John Roosa, Charles S. Bull, and Charles E. Hackney.
- Date:
- 1873
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Treatise on the diseases of the eye, including the anatomy of the organ / by Carl Stellwag von Carion ; translated from the fourth German edition and edited by D.B. St John Roosa, Charles S. Bull, and Charles E. Hackney. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
44/960 page 14
![INDICATIONS FOR TREATMENT. After this detailed description of the conditions of innervation and circulation, we may pass on to the treatment of inflammations of the eye. There are two general indications in treatment. They are the indications spring- ing from the cause, and from the disease itself. 1. The indication from the cause of the disease.—This aims to remove all internal or external injurious influences, and not only those which have excited the inflam- matory process, but also those which may act on the inflamed part in the progress of the disease, thus keeping up the inflammation. 2. The indication from the disease.—This aims to limit the process itself to break its force, and increase the chances of resolution. The indications springing from the cause are divided into innumerable special requirements. These are the removal of any physical, mechanical, chemical, or organic injurious influences, as well as of any predisposition to diseased action; the circulation and aeration of the blood should be regulated as well as the nutrition. Some of the causes of inflammation only act in individual cases, and under peculiar circumstances. Many of them show an affinity to certain parts of the eye, and to certain forms of disease. We shall, therefore, defer any reference to them until we reach the sections devoted to these parts and their affections. A smaller portion of these injurious influences, however, have a more general importance, since all people, amid very different circumstances of life, are more or less liable to their effects. The indications of, and the appropriate remedies for, these injurious influences, are the subject of the present part of this work. A. The following may be especially named as among the mechanical inju- rious influences which most frequently aggravate irritations and inflammations of the eye:— 1. Rubbing, pressing, or even touching the eyelids to alleviate unpleasant feel- ings of itching, biting, burning, or actual pain; pressing the eyes with the hands or arms in order to relieve annoying photophobia. Although this is particularly to be seen in children, we not unfrequently meet with similar improper management in adults. In the case of the latter, simple instruction is sufficient; but with children wre may be compelled to use compulsory measures. Formerly a handkerchief folded like a bandage was applied as a protective covering. This is not only too warm, but it is oppressive, on account of its weight, and it may exert very uneven pressure. All the requirements are better answered by the method of bandaging now in gen- eral use. This consists in filling the orbital region with fine charpie [picked lint] or soft cotton, and in the use of a soft and light elastic bandage. The charpie is placed either in a single cushion, properly formed, or in numerous small layers over the closed lids, and so distributed that all the depressions between the convexity of the globe and the bony qrbital borders are filled. The bandage placed on this exerts a perfectly uniform pressure upon the parts lying beneath. We use as a ban- dage a seamless strip of the finest flannel, which, for the sake of greater elasticity, is cut obliquely with the course of the fibers. This should be six inches long and one to two inches wide, and to each end, which is pointed, a small strip of tape is attached, in order to have a small knot in fastening, and to limit, as far as possible the annoy- ing wrapping of the part. One of the chief requirements is, that the bandage, while not very tightly applied, shall not slip off. The binocular bandage, which is placed obliquely over the eyes, usually maintains its position, but not so with the monocular. It is necessary, in order to secure the latter in its](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21987634_0044.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
