Lectures on diseases of the eye / by Charles Bell Taylor.

  • Bell Taylor
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on diseases of the eye / by Charles Bell Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    from sticking together by a little oxide of zinc and white preciiDitate ointment, and the eye must be kept saturated with alum water or weak solution of chloride of zinc (1 gr. to ounce), which may be iced or heated according to the nature of the case. If the lids are swollen, tense, red and shining, they may be punctured, leeched, or painted with a solution of nitrate of silver in nitric ether, and if the cornea threatens to give way, the anterior chamber may be tapped and a compress bandage applied. You need not fear to separate the lids for the purpose of looking at the eye in the early stages of disease, but later on the utmost care is needed. I was called to a case of this kind some time ago, a long way off ; two surgeons were already in attendance, one a specialist. I said, The cornea of the left eye is on the eve of perforation, and I think we had better give a little chloroform, tap the chamber and apply a compress bandage. My ophthalmic friend dissented from this view, and proceeded to repeat my examination for himself. I was leaning over anxiously, I may say fearfully, watching the process, when, either from some sudden motion of the child, or undue pressure on the part of the operator, the lens was projected with violence and struck me in the right eye ! By dint of free ablution and the use of antiseptics, I was quit for the fright, but it was a warning to me, and I am sure it will be a warning to you to be careful how you conduct an examination in the later stages of purulent ophthalmia. Apart from the danger to the child itself, the risk to attendants from carelessness in this respect is some- thing greater than you can readily conceive. Let me endeavour to impress this upon you by a recital of two or three very important facts. First—1 have known a short-sighted nurse inoculated by pent-up matter which spurted out when the adherent lids were suddenly separated.
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