A practical guide to the study of the diseases of the eye : their medical and surgical treatment / by Henry W. Williams.

  • Williams, Henry W. (Henry Willard), 1821-1895.
Date:
1869, ©1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical guide to the study of the diseases of the eye : their medical and surgical treatment / by Henry W. Williams. 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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    their influence is scarcely felt in affections which have become chronic. When prescribed, they should gen- erally be applied on the temple, at some distance be- hind the eye and on a level with it. If applied on or above or too near the lids, much swelling is liable to ensue, from infiltration of the loose sub-cutane- ous cellular tissue. Depletion by scarification of the conjunctiva, or division of vessels on the surface of the globe, has been much recommended by some au- thorities ; but, though scarification is often followed by a sense of relief, the effect is but transitory, — the reparative process for the healing of the small incisions renewing the vascular congestion to fully its original degree, — so that on the second day the con- dition is usually the same as before the operation was performed. Vessels should not be divided with the hope of cutting off a supply from a diseased cornea; such an expedient could only have been devised by a superficial observer; as in this case their development is the effect and not the cause of the disease, and, if certain branches are obliterated after incision, others are immediately developed in their place ; whereas they all disappear after, but not before, the state of the cornea is improved by proper treatment. Local depletion, to a moderate extent, is by no means incompatible with a general tonic treatment. Unloading the neighboring vessels may relieve a pas- sive congestion, the return of which may best be prevented by giving vigor to the general circulation.