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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    example, 1st, Injuries, perhaps producing fracture ; 2d, Cold, and] other common causes of inflammation ; 3d, Syphilis, scrofula, orj other diseases of a constitutional nature, acting locally; and 4th, 1 The spread of inflammation from the neighbouring parts, and{ especially from the soft parts contained within the orbit. We should^ call the first three examples primary, and the last seconcfary inflainma-^ tion of the orbit. The first and third set of causes are much more i apt to induce inflammation of the bone and caries, if the patient be scrofulous, or syphilitic. Inflammation of the periosteum or of the bones of the orbit, primarily or secondarily excited, may terminate by resolution. If the periosteum is left in a thickened state, the term node or perios- fosis is applied to the swelling. If an increased deposition of osseous matter is left in the inflamed bone, or on its surfaces, hyperostosis or bony node is the term used. Periostitis or ostitis may terminate in the formation of pus, and this may be deposited either between the perirtsteum and the hone, or in the cancelli. When the disease proceeds to ulcerative absorption of the bony substance, it is styled caries; if it ends in the death of the inflamed piece of bone, necrosis.^ Arising from causes of the first or second set above enumerated, periostitis or ostitis of the orbit, is more apt to run an acute course, and to be attended with severe pain, fever, and immediate danger, than when causes of the third or fourth class are in operation. When acute, pus is likely to be deposited between the periorbita and the bones ; the eyeball to be displaced, if the disease is completely within the orbit; and sympathetic inflammation to be excited in the mem- branes of the brain, terminating fatally. Chronic cases, again, are more likely to end in thickening of the periosteum, or destruction of the bones. I do not consider it necessary to describe, further than I have done, the inflammatory effects of those injuries of the orbit, which form the subject of the preceding section. In penetrating wounds especially, and in gunshot wounds of the orbit, we must lay our account with inflammation of the bones and periosteum, followed by suppurations, sloughings, sinuses, caries, necrosis, and tedious ex- foliations. Demours speaks^ of primary inflammation of the orbital periosteum as extremely common ; but the symptom to which he refers, is evidently nothing more than the circumorbital neuralgia, which, increasing every evening and relaxing every morning, is an attendant on some of the internal ophthalmia?. It seems more reasonable to refer the pain, in such cases, to the branches of the 5th nerve, than to the periosteum. The most frequent cause of secondary inflammation of the bones of the orbit, is supposed to be inflammation of the orbital cellular substance, or of the lacrymal gland, going on to suppuration, and the absce.ss, either from misapprehension or neglect, not being opened ; while, in some cases, severe inflammation of the eyeball spreads not only to the surrounding soft parts, but also to the pen-