On the changes in the colour of the iris produced by inflammation / [James Hunter].

  • Hunter, James, M.D
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the changes in the colour of the iris produced by inflammation / [James Hunter]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/6 (page 79)
    scale, reason was in the other. This opinion, in which a large pro¬ portion of physicians attached to asylums coincide, is worthy of the consideration of our brethren in general practice, and strongly sup¬ ports the propriety of the immediate removal of the insane to asy¬ lums, where tranquillity can be purchased at a less ruinous price; and where there is a chance, that, whatever treatment is judged ex¬ pedient, will be pursued without interruption, and the results accu¬ rately ascertained. Article III.—On the Changes in the Colour of the Iris produced by Inf animation. By James Hunter, M.D., Surgeon to the Edinburgh Eye Dispensary. Though the non-occurrence of change in the colour of the iris, during or subsequent to ophthalmia, be no certain test of its healthy condition, yet the well-marked appearance of such change is evidence of the past or present existence of iritis, and one which, from its va¬ rieties in different stages of the disease, and in different individuals, deserves the careful investigation and attention of practitioners. To give a physico-pathological explanation of the changes in the colour of the inflamed iris, founded on the observation of numerous cases, and to draw some practical deductions from their consideration, is the object of this memoir. In the earliest stage of iritis, the iris contains an unusual quantity of red matter ; the vessels, however, being merely distended with blood. On the other hand, in the latter stage of uncontrolled iritis, or in the sequelae of the disease, yellow lymph is effused into the in¬ terstices of the iris, which consequently assumes a yellow appearance. In the intermediate stage, when there is both a fulness of the blood¬ vessels, and incipient effusion of lymph, the iris contains much red¬ dish yellow matter. On the existence of some one of these condi¬ tions, the morbid changes observed in the colour of the iris primarily depend. If the iris were naturally white, and if the ophthalmias affecting it were confined to its middle tissue, then acute cases would be always distinguished by a pinky redness, chronic cases by a primrose yellow¬ ness, and those of a subacute nature by a pale orange tint. But as inflammation may affect different parts of the iris, and as the natural colour of the organ varies much in different persons, the morbid changes in its colour will be modified by these two circumstances, es¬ pecially by the last. I. Modification in colour depending on the seat of the disease- When inflammation affects chiefly the anterior layer of the iris, and is not syphilitic, it is generally subacute, and connected with stru¬ mous disease of the lining membrane of the cornea. In such cases, a change of colour is often hardly perceptible at an early stage, from