Practical remarks. Part I. On acute and chronic ophthalmia, ulcers of the eye &c. &c. Part II. On remittent fever, viz. simple and complicated / by Thomas O'Halloran.

Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical remarks. Part I. On acute and chronic ophthalmia, ulcers of the eye &c. &c. Part II. On remittent fever, viz. simple and complicated / by Thomas O'Halloran. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    the patient be placed in a healthy situation to ivhich air and light have free access. The in- stances in which vision has been permanently lost are owing, in nine cases out of ten, either to inflammation produced by the over distention of the ball of the eye from extravasated fluid, to over depletion by the lancet, or to ill treatment in confined apartments, where the air becomes contaminated:—they are not owing to the dis- ease in its own nature. Inflammation produced by over distention from extravasated fluid may be considered as the effect of the lodgement of a foreign body, which deranges the internal struc- ture of the organ ; and where it is present in such quantity as to cause distention, the parts are sometimes thrown into a state of active in- flammation. In this case, then, we have a new disease characterised by symptoms indicative of inflammation as in other parts, and wholly dif- ferent from those by which ophthalmia is dis- tinguished in its genuine form. For the removal or cure of this condition, it will be necessary to bleed largely from the arm ; and we must here have recourse to the most rigorous means of depletion. If the bursting of the coats of the eye be apprehended from over distention, punc- turing the cornea will not only afford relief from pain, but give hope that the disease may be ulti- mately cured; a circumstance which could not be expected if the evacuation of the fluid be c ii