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
Catalogue details

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.

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    ..andlo of the fan, which he immediately extracted with a pair of forceps. The .’.atient speedily recovered.-^ Case 28.—Mr White relates the ease of a person, to whom it happened that, : i he sat in company, the small end of a tobaceo-pipe was thrust through the liddle of the lower'eyeiid. It passed between the globe of the eye and the in- erior and external circumference of the orbit, and was forced through that por- on of tlie os maxillare, which constitutes the lower and internal part of the orbit, i'he pipe was broken in the wound, and the part broken otf, which, from the ex- mination of the remainder, appeared to be above three inches, was quite out of :ght or feeling, nor could the patient give any account of what had become of it. \'he eye was dislocated upwards, pressing the upper eyelid against the superior art of the orbit; the pupil pointed perpendicularly upwards, tlie depressor oculi /as upon the full stretch, and the patient could see none with that eye. Mr White i pplied one thumb above and the other below the eye, and, after a few attempts f t reduction, it suddenly slipped into its socket. The man instantly recovered t lerfect sight, and suft'ered no other inconvenience than that of a constant smell of ! obacco smoke in his nose for a long time after ; for, as he informed Mr White, i he pipe had just been used before the acciilcnt. About two years afterwards, lie I ailed upon Mr White, to acquaint him that he had, that morning, in a fit of ; roughing, thrown out of his throat a ])icce of tobacco j>ipe, measuring two inches, ' vhich was discharged witli such violence, as to be thrown seven yards from the olace wliere he stood. In about six weeks, he threw out another piece, measuring ' ,n incli, in the same manner, and never afterwards felt the least inconvenience.^* In illustration of the great length of time, which a foreign body 1 nay take in this way to escape, I may notice the following case, re- lated in a letter to Ilorstius :— Case 29.—A boy of 14 years of age was struck by an arrow, while amusing 1 limself in his play-ground. It stuck fast in the orbit, but the boy juillcd it out, nd tlirew it on tlie ground. A surgeon arrived, to whom the jilay-fellows of the ' loy who was wounded showed ihe arrow, dejirivcd of its iron point. With a probe ' he surgeon attempted to examine the wound; but,on the boy fainting, he desisted, ' o that the iron point was left in the orbit. The external wound healed, and the loy recovered; the eye remained clear and moveable, but deprived of sight. This happened in the beginning of August 1594, and nothing more was heard of he iron point, till October 1624; when, after an attack of fever and catarrh, with 1 peat deal of sneezing, it descended into the left nostril, whence, taking the way if the^fauces, it came into the mouth and was discharged. During the whole thirty 'cars and three months that it had remained in the head, it had not been produc- ive of any pain.3^ The following is the interesting case of penetration of the caver- lous sinus, through the spheno-orbitary fissure, to which 1 have ilreatly adverted :— Case 30.—Michael Walsh, an Irish lad, 15 years old, and employed as abrick- ayer s labourer, cpiarrelled in the beginning of January 1832, with one of his ountrymen, whilst sitting at the same table, in a public house. During the heat f the argument, his opponent, who sat opposite to him, thurst a common clay obaceo-iiipe into the lad’s eye, and made, ajqiarently, a very deep wound. For evpal days, nothing was thought of the event, and but little, if any', incon- enience experienced by the boy. About the 8th or 9th day', however, his ppetite was perceived to hill off; he became languid and feverish, and had fre- uent rigors, followed by severe pain of the head, especially of the sinciput. He pjihed at the Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital, and a jiortion of tobacco-pipe bout two inches in length, was extracted from the orbit by Mr J. II. Alcock’ :he boy was copiously bled and purged, but his sufferings continued to increase • he sight of the affected eye was lost; he became delirious ; an urgent irritative ;ver succeeded; and it was inferred that suppuration was takingplace within lecranium. * In this state, the lad was sent to the Westminster Hospital, on the 11th of aiuiary. He Mas sensible only at short intervals, and appeared to be sutFcrin