Treatise on the diseases of the eye : including the anatomy of the organ / by Carl Stellwag von Carion ; tr. from the 3rd German ed. and ed. by Charles E. Hackley and D.B. St. John Roosa ; with an appendix by the editors.
- Karl Stellwag von Carion
- Date:
- 1870
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Treatise on the diseases of the eye : including the anatomy of the organ / by Carl Stellwag von Carion ; tr. from the 3rd German ed. and ed. by Charles E. Hackley and D.B. St. John Roosa ; with an appendix by the editors. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![extent, and is not advisable. They are, dehydrated clay, silicious earth, besides sugar, alum, borax, common salt, flowers of zinc, cream of tartar, crab's eye, cuttlefish bone, glass, pumice stone, tin-filings, aloes, etc. These were used in the finest powder, either pure or in mixtures of various kinds. Irritating ointments also act very powerfully and are very useful; they are in- troduced into the lower palpebral fold with a camel's-hair brush, and then, the lids being closed, the ointment is distributed over the conjunctiva, by gently rubbing them with the finger. A great variety of agents are used as the efficacious part of these ointments. The amorphous yellow oxide of mercury stands high in respect to the certainty and regularity of its effect. One to three grains are mixed with a drachm of lard, simple cerate, fresh butter or cocoa batter. The commercial hydrarg. prcecipitatus ruber, one to two grains, hydrarg. praicipitatus alius, one to four graius, oxide of zinc, three grains, iodide of potassium, two to four grains, and pure iodine, one eighth of a grain to the drachm of the vehicle, respectively, are also used, but do not answer as well. The amorphous yellow oxide of mercury, called bioxyde de mercur hydrate, by the French, is ob- tained by precipitation from a solution of the bichloride made by means of caustic potash. It is essentially nothing more than the officinal red precipitate, but it has the advantage over this, that it is much more finely divided, it mixes more intimately, thoroughly and evenly with the vehicle, and thus allows a more exact measurement of its effect. If the ordinary red precipitate be carefully triturated as the pharmocopoeia directs, it is not inferior to the amorphous yellow oxide, and does not have a red color, but is a bright orange-yellow. The extremely irregular effects which the formerly so much esteemed red precipitate produced in ophthalmic practice, are to be entirely ascribed to the careless preparation of the agent. Ointments of one part of the yellow amorphous oxide of mercury to eight parts of fat, as they have recently been recommended (Pagemtecher), act too severely, and require subsequent cleansing of the conjunctival sac. The amorphous yellow oxide has one unpleasant property, and that is, it readily decomposes when exposed to the light; therefore it should be carefully protected and frequently renewed. The ointment should be thoroughly rubbed up, so that one part does not act more powerfully than the other. Recently, instead of the fat, a mixture of one part of starch with five parts of glycerine has been used. By soaking the former in glycerine heated up to 70° R. [about 190° F.], the mixture attains the consistency of fat. It does not become rancid like fat, however, which then does harm and decomposes the preparation. Most of the agents used in eye-salves are readily soluble in glycerine. Besides, the glycerine itself deliquesces in the tears, and the medicaments enveloped in it are more easily distributed throughout the whole conjunc- tival sac, and thus are more certainly taken up, than when applied in the ointments made with fat, which the moist conjunctiva, as it were, throws off. Therefore, glycerine ointments containing the same amount of the active substance, have almost double the effect of the others. The gly- cerine used should be chemically pure, perfectly colorless, and as clear as water. {Graefe.) Closely allied to the ointments are the fats, popularly known as eye-salves—eel's oil, serpent's fat, bear's fat, etc. These cannot be had fresh every day, are therefore generally rancid, and act as irritants through the free fat acids. A great number of substances are used as astringent eye lotions. The most use- ful are : sulphate of zinc, sulphate of copper, sulphate of cadmium, alum, nitrate of silver, corrosive chloride of mercury, acetate of lead, tincture of opium, and tannin. To this list may be added the lapis divinus, which-, as is well known, consists of sulph. cup., nitri puri, alurn crud., da 1 j., camphorce 3 ss.. Besides, common salt (Bau), and sesquichloride of iron (Folliri), are used. It is usual to write for a grain of sulphate of zinc, sulphate of copper, sulphate of cadmium, crude alum, lap. divin., to the ounce of water, and half a grain of nitrate of silver, a quarter of a ' grain of the corrosive chloride of mercury, four grains of acetate of lead, two to](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2107902x_0050.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
