Illustrations of some of the principal diseases of the eye : with a brief account of their symptoms, pathology, and treatment / by Henry Power.

  • Power, H. (Henry), 1829-1911.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Illustrations of some of the principal diseases of the eye : with a brief account of their symptoms, pathology, and treatment / by Henry Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    139/696 (page 79)
    the patient, the tears continuing to descend by its side. The first time, however, the patient suffers from a cold in the head, the mucous membrane of the duct, swelling, tightly embraces the instrument, producing the most severe pain and the formation of an abscess, rendering its removal by operation imperative. No one who has not operated on such a case woiild readily believe the firmness with which the little style becomes impacted in the passages; but, deeply imbedded, coated with a tartar-like incrustation, and bent to the form of the canal, it resists very great efforts to drag it out, and is only removed by force, which inflicts great damage on the surrounding structures. Mr Bowman states that, when in the habit of performing this operation, he endeavoured to aivoid this difiicidty by using probes or styles of sufficient length to project from the upper orifice while resting on the floor of the nose; but even then the results of the operation were by no means satisfactory. Wliere the disease is of long standing, and where the mea- sures suggested by Mr Bowman have failed, it may perhaps be advisable, as a dernier ressort, to try to obliterate the sac, for the accomplishment of which various methods have been adopted. M. Desmarres, for instance, formerly employed the actual cautery; but finding it difficult to overcome the dread with which it inspired the patient, has lately,^ with M. Delore, used the dry chloride of zinc, of which he inserts a small qtiantity into the upper part of the sac, in the form of a pate, and covers it with charpie, after which cold or iced dressings should be applied. Dr Williams, of Cincinnati, still employs the actual cautery, if there be any carious bone. If not, however, he inserts into the sac portions of nitrate of silvei, which he allows to dissolve slowly. The operation is repeated once a-week, and he has never seen any unpleasant consequences. The closure and obliteration of the sac have also been 1 Compt. Rend, du Congres d'Ophth., p. 141. 1S62.