Autointoxication in relation to the eye / by G. E. de Schweinitz.

  • De Schweinitz, G. E. (George Edmund), 1858-1938.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Autointoxication in relation to the eye / by G. E. de Schweinitz. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    tinal fermentation. It certainly must be the experience of all ophthalmologists that regulation of the diet, intes- tinal antisepsis, and in general terms, what I may call gastrointestinal hygiene, is of the greatest moment in the treatment of relapsing corneal ulcers, especially in children and young adults, but that these corneal lesions should be designated as symptoms of the autointoxica- tion is not by any means certain, although if persistent urine analysis persistently gave the indications of en- terogenous decomposition and other factors were elimin- inated, such relationship would at least be probable. Exactly the same remarks apply to various forms of scleritis, both of the deep and superficial variety and to that form which is known as the periodic fugacious episcleritis, the £<hot eye of the English writers. In these diseases the regulations of diet, etc., which have been referred to are of the greatest moment in treat- ment. These types of scleritis and keratitis have recently been the subject of a brief communication by Frederick Groyer,13 and he is satisfied, using the method of Ober- mayer for indican reaction, that its persistent presence in the urine with these diseases, especially if the other signs of abnormal intestinal fermentation are present, must be accepted as a sign that the exciting cause arises in the gastrointestinal tract. DISEASES OF THE UVEA. The extreme difficulty of finding a satisfying cause for various types of uveitis, that is to say, uveitis with punc- tate keratitis, iridocyclitis, iridochoroiditis, recurring plastic choroiditis, and so-called relapsing or recurrent iritis, has led in recent times to a search for some toxin other than that supplied by syphilis and in vague terms by the rheumatic or lithemic diathesis. According to Elschnig, what may be termed the gas- trointestinal factor bears an important relation to these uveal tract diseases, and should be regarded m many ot them, if not the sole, at least a contributing cause. Two varieties are in his experience particularly to be classi- fied here. , . , . 1 Chronic iridocyclitis with deposits m the anterior chamber and opacities in the vitreous which occurs in women whose breath has an acetone-like odor and who ~~13~Groyer : Muench. med. Wochft, Sept. 26, 1905.