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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    r'tarilin the flow of blood. Dr Baudens did not wish to arrest the bleeding l ltoEretherj as it eontributed, he thought, to the safety of the patient. During ,ie first fifteen days, there was occasional delirium ; but this symptona was mo- derated by cold aijplications to the head, along with the abstraction of blood by luppino- between the shoulders. A multitude of small maggots formed in the : rbits Ind nostrils. Fearing they might penetrate to the brain. Dr Baudens . -estroyed them by a weak solution of corrosive sublimate. Among the eftects of this injury, the following are particularized by Dr Bau- < :ens. A feather, pushed into the nostrils, produced no sensation, but any sharp ,..ody was distinctly felt. This organ, although not entirely deprived of sensibility, i-asnot affected by any annoying itchiness from the presence of the maggots. The corneae became opaque, and were destroyed, so that the eyes sunk. The ensc of smell was lost, and the sensibility of the palate was blunted. The in- ellect was weakened. The patient preserved Bie memory of what had happened 0 him previously to the injury; but, alter this, not even the incidents of the •veiling could be recalled in the following morning. He was not aware of the >'Xtent of his misfortune, and still chcrislied the hope of being restored to sight. The wounds were cicatrized two months after the receipt of the injury. 5. Balls sometimes extracted from the orbit; in other cases left nn- 'emoved. A ball which has penetrated through one or other of the iides of the orbit, may, in some cases, be detected and extracted. In other cases, it cannot be extracted, nor its course ascertained; !0 that, if the individual survives, it must be left to make its way jut by the fauces, or by some other route. Even grains of small shot, traversing the walls of the orbit, or ixing in them, should be traced, and, if possible, extracted. Left n the substance of the bones, they are apt to give rise to exostoses, (u those cases in which a musket-ball is left, we must lay our iccount with caries, exfoliation of the bones, deep-seated formations )f matter, sloughing of the mucous membranes, puffy swellings on the surface towards which the ball is approaching, and a very tedious recovery. Sinuses form, in such cases, before the ball makes its exit, and continue after it has escaped; and to dry them up is generally attended with danger. We must wait till the parts within have become healthy, and then the sinuses will close of themselves. Case 41.—Dr Hennen mentions^ the case of a soldier, who was brought to him kome weeks after being wounded, for the purpose of having a ball extracted, which gave him excessive pain, impeded his respiration and deglutition, prevented his speaking distinctly, and kejit up an irritation in his fauces, attended with a constant flow of saliva, and a very frequent inclination to vomit. On examina- tion, it was found to be lodged in the posterior part of the fauces, forming a tumour behind, and nearly in contact with the velum pendulum. It had passed in at the internal canthus of the eye, fracturing the bone. Although blindness was the instant effect, the globe of the eye was not destroj’cd; and the remain- ing cicatrice, and the very inflamed state of the organ, were the only proofs that an extraneous body had ]iassed near it. j Case 42.—One of the most .remarkable cases of a ball penetrating through the orbit, and making its way out of the head, is that of Dr Fielding, who was • shot at the battle of Newberry, in the time of the Civil Wars. The ball entered ; by the right orbit and passed inwards. After 30 years’ residence in the parts, • and a variety of exfoliations from the wound, nose, and mouth, and the forma- tion of several swellings about the jaw, it was at last cut out near the nomum Adami.5i * G. Balls or other foreign bodies passing through the orbit, left with- I in the cranium. Although it generally happens that gunshot ^ wounds of the orbit, penetrating into the brain, prove immediately