A practical treatise on the diseases of the eye / by William Mackenzie ; to which is prefixed an anatomical introduction explanatory of a horizontal section of the human eyeball by Thomas Wharton Jones.
- Date:
- 1840
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A practical treatise on the diseases of the eye / by William Mackenzie ; to which is prefixed an anatomical introduction explanatory of a horizontal section of the human eyeball by Thomas Wharton Jones. 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.
158/978
![in contact with the fire, so that a large portion of the integuments of the face is disorganized, and that so deeply, that on the eschar separating, the bones are exposed. All cases of hums and scalds of the eyelids shoidd he treated with particular care ; for, there is, on the one hand, the danger of anchyloblepharon, or union of the edges of the lids, and on the other, of lagophthalmos and ectropium. It is chiefly in cases of scalds from boiling water, and other hot or caustic fluids, as sulphuric acid, in which the cuticle covering the edges of the lids has been detached, and the ]>atient afterwards allowed, from carelessness, to lie for a length of time with the lids shut, that anchyloblepharon follows. It may always be prevented, by obliging the patient to open his eyes frecpiently, and introducing, along their edges, a little unguentum oxidi zinci, or other mild salve, melted on the point of the finger. Symblepharon, or union of the lids to the eyeball, is sometimes produced, when the conjunctiva has been injured by the burn or scald. Its prevention should be attempted in a similar way. Burns and scalds of the external surface of the lids, which have ' not been sufficiently severe to produce a separation of the cuticle, . much less to destroy the texture of the cutis, require merely to be ^ kept constantly wet, for 24 hours, by means of a fold of linen dipped | in a mixture of vinegar and tepid water. The same application is | also, I conceive, the best, in cases in which the skin is blistered; i only, that as soon as the blister has fairly formed, it ought to be | punctured with a needle, to let its contents escape. After the first 24 | hours, a piece of soft linen, spread with simple cerate, is to be applied. 4 Burns so severe as to destroy the texture of the cutis, heal only | by a slow process of granulation and cicatrization. The granula- | tions, upon which the new skin is formed, are afterwards absorbed, % so that a great degree of contraction is produced ; and if the eye- * lids are involved in the cicatrice, they are shortened or everted. ^ This happens more frequently to the lower than to the upper lid, ^ while in some cases of destruction of the skin stretching from the f; outer angle of the eye towards the temple, we find, after the burn has healed, that both lids are dragged outwards, and their internal , surface exposed. One of the worst cases of eversion of the lids, from a burn, which I have seen, was consequent to total destruction of a large portion of the skin of the face, occasioned by a child fall- ing against the fire. The lobe of the ear was lost, the cicatrice was very extensive, and both lids were everted, and dragged towards the temple. In such a case, it is impossible to prevent altogether the displacement of the lids, attendant on the contraction of the cica- trice. In cases of burning of the eyelids from the individual falling | upon the fire, where the destruction of parts is such that little else g is left than cartilage and conjunctiva, the consequent ectropium is ^ necessarily so great, that the eye inflames, suppurates, and perishes, m from exposure. But, in ordinary and less severe cases, much may be done by careful dressing and bandaging. The lids must be kept, ^](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28043467_0158.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
