Epidemic ophthalmia : its symptoms, diagnosis, and management, with papers upon allied subjects / by Sydney Stephenson.

  • Stephenson, Sydney, 1862-1923.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Epidemic ophthalmia : its symptoms, diagnosis, and management, with papers upon allied subjects / by Sydney Stephenson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    ophthalmia, too, corneal damage is relatively frequent, so that ulcers (or the marks left by them), staphyloma, or even loss of an eye, may be met with. The signs of a past iritis, also, may be sometimes observed. Lastly, diphtheritic inflammation, like purulent oph- thalmia, leaves the conjunctiva thick, red, and folded; while a further point of resemblance between those two diseases lies in the fact that scar changes are liable to follow both. That is equal to saying that symblepharon, entropion, or trichiasis may be a sequel of either malady. Of the four acute alfections, then, grouped together under the common name epidemic ophthalmia, three arise from contagion, viz.—purulent and diphtheritic conjunctivitis, and acute trachoma. With regard to the fourth, catarrhal ophthalmia, whatever be its origin, it spreads, at any rate, by transfer of discharge. A proper knowledge of these facts underlies all successful preventive treatment, and fur- nishes us with the clue to many precautions that might otherwise seem unnecessarily tedious and minute. In addition to the preceding forms of acute disease, some reference must be made to two chronic affections of the palpebral conjunctiva : trachoma and folliculosis. Those conditions are described in full elsewhere, so that passing mention only need be made of them in this place. Trachoma is a sharply defined disease of the conjunctiva, due in all probability to a specific micro-organism. Pfeiffer and Ridley, however, have recently suggested that it may be caused by parasitic protozoa. As already seen, it may commence as an acute inflamma- tion, but more frequently, perhaps, it is chronic from the outset. How- ever it begins, it is, in my judgment, a malady that originates in con- tagion, and in that alone. I no more believe in its spontaneous evolution than I do in the de novo origin of measles or of ringworm. All the same, trachoma is not equally infectious at all times and under all circumstances. There can be little doubt that its virulence depends on the quantity and quality of the discharge; in other words, on the amount and yellowness of the secretion. It thus follows that the most dangerous epidemics of the acute ailments are those accom-