A manual of pathology / by Joseph Coats.

  • Joseph Coats
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of pathology / by Joseph Coats. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1124/1178 page 1096
    vessels, which frequently cover the whole surface. This condition is called Pannus, and it is generally recovered from when the primary affection is removed. A more profound vascularization occurs in some cases in the form of localized crescentic areas at the upper and lower borders of the cornea. This form has been ascribed to nervous lesions. Vascu- larization also not infrequently attends ulcer of the cornea, a fasciculus of vessels running in from the border to the ulcer. Interstitial keratitis is a name given to cases in which the cornea assumes an opaque appearance. It is met with chiefly, as Hutchin- son pointed out, amongst persons the subject of Hereditary syphilis, in whom it is associated with a special condition of the teeth (see p. 822). The cornea has in the milder cases an appearance com- pared to that of ground glass. The actual histological condition of the tissue is various. There may be simply an infiltration of in- flammatory products, or there may be more profound changes in the tissue, sometimes even a kind of cicatricial condition. Herpes sometimes attacks the cornea along with the skin in the course of one of the branches of the fifth nerve (Zona ophthalmica). The eruption may lead to an ulcer or even perforation of the cornea. Paralysis of the fifth nerve also leads to inflammation and ulcera- tion of the cornea (Neuropathic ophthalmia). The cornea becomes cloudy and opaque, and ulcers form which may perforate. These results have been variously ascribed, on the one hand to the anaes- thesia, which admits of injuries to the eye and exposes it to the presence of foreign bodies without their being felt, and, on the other, to a special affection of the trophic nerves (see p. 131). Another form of Keratitis is that which occurs when, in con- sequence of great weakness in the patient, the eyelids are not closed, and the lower part of the cornea undergoes dessication (Keratitis e lag ophthalmia). There may be ulceration in consequence. Ulcers of the cornea arise, as indicated in the remarks made above, under a large number of different circumstances. Ulcers heal by the new-formation of connective tissue, which fills the gap. As this has not the structure of the corneal tissue it is more or less opaque, and appears in the clear cornea as a white area. These areas, being weak, are liable, if large and central, to yield before the pressure within and form a bulging outwards, a condition named Staphyloma of the cornea. The iris is frequently adherent to the cicatrix and is often protruded in a staphyloma. III. Affections of the sclerotic.—The sclerotic is a dense con-
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3