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.
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![matter, when there is any irritation on or in the eye. Calabar bean extract may also be recommended as a myotic, when there are peripheral corneal ulcers, which threaten to become perforating; in case of eccentric opacities of the cornea and of the capsule, as well as when the lens is luxated, for the purpose of improving the vision, by creating a stenopaic apparatus for the eye; in the operation of iridectomy, for the purpose of enlarging the surface of the iris, especially in glaucoma, when the iris is not yet degenerated; and also to favor the disappearance of mydriasis induced by atropine. Calabar bean has not proved of use in insufficiency and paresis of the muscles of accommodation from internal causes, and in similar conditions of the external muscles it accomplishes nothing. Tn order to fulfill the above-mentioned indications, the local application of weak solutions of the extract should be repeated daily. Caution should be observed, for the agent is a power- ful poison. Indeed, when instillations have been made, very frequently symptoms of consti- tutional poisoning may occur, among which an extraordinary reflex excitability and paralysis of motion of the extremities are prominent (Schelske). Large interhal doses generally produce vomiting, a small weak pulse, cool skin, cold perspi- ration, extreme prostration, and death by paralysis of the expiratory muscles. The proper antidote is the speedy employment of hypodermic injections of a solution of atropine about 1-40 to 1-30 of a grain. 10. Irritants.—These have a very extended use in the treatment of external in- flammation of the eye and its results. In order to accomplish their object, they must act directly upon the affected organ. The irritation which they set up in the sensory -nerves being carried over to the vaso-motory nerves, may cause a contrac- tion of the caliber of the vessels when they are in a condition of relaxation. This is done by the excitation and invigoration of the atonic muscular fiber. Thus, resolution of the inflammation is favored by the lessening or removal of the congestion, which is one of the causes of an unfavorable course. Added to this the agent acts upon the proliferating tissue itself. This effect may change the character and lessen the degree of the inflammation, when the conditions are ap- propriate. It may serve also to alter morbid secretions, and to excite the prostrate curative action, and to hasten the tardy reparation of losses of substance. Fre- quently such an artificial irritation becomes useful by bringing with it an active flow of blood and favoring assimilation. It thus has a favorable influence on the retrocession and absorption of old inflammatory products. The speedier change in the epithelial layers which is connected with the irritation is not unimportant. This consists in the more abundant throwing off of the morbid layers, and their re- placement by new ones, which are formed under more favorable conditions, and possibly in a manner more corresponding to the normal process. In certain cases of exceedingly luxuriant production [of these layers], it is not only an advantage to increase the separation of the superficial strata in this way, but also to act some- what on them by a chemical destruction—that is by the caustic effect. Finally, some of the irritants do service by chemically acting on certain morbid secretions, and depriving them of the harmful influence which they may exercise upon the nutrition of the inflamed parts in contact with them. The use of irrita- ting agents, of course, has no good object, but is rather harmful and contra-indicated, when there is an inflammation existing, having a sthenic character. Such an inflam- mation is indicated by a lively red injection, tense swelling and heat of the part, to- gether with symptoms of nervous irritation. The same is true where there is severe](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21987634_0069.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
