300 On the Staphyloma, Hydrophihalmia, 



the only inconvenience the projection occasions is produced 

 by the unseemly appearance it presents to observers. Thi« 

 may in some degree be prevented by wearing a pair of spec- 

 tacles containing plain window glass in the ring op()()3ite 

 the sound eve, and glass that is gronnd in a slight degree 

 opaque, or even similar plain window glass, in the ring op- 

 •})0site the afiected eye. In some instance.), however, a 

 ronsciousness of the appearance produced !)v a projecting 

 opaque cornea has occasioned so much distress of mind, 

 that I have been requested to sink the eye, solely for the 

 purpose of getting rid of the deformity. I wish 1 could say 

 that milder means have been ffjund sufficient to accomplish 

 the object. Various applications have been proposed for 

 this purpose at different limes by difTerent autliors. By 

 some, strong caustics have been recommended for the ex- 

 press purpose of producing an excoriation, and even an ul- 

 ceration, on the surlace of the projecting substance. Both 

 Janin * and Richter f have said that they not only removed 

 the prcjjection of an opaque cornea, but even reproduced 

 its transparency, by the application of the butter of anti- 

 mony. Janin has recommended this application, for the 

 purpose also of rem'^ving that other species of the staphy- 

 loma, in which there is a protrusion of part of the iris 

 through an ulcer of the cornea. But 1 beg leave to observe 

 that caustic applications of every kind should be used with 

 great caution in all diseases of the eye. I have known them 

 occasion violent and long-continued inflammations ; and, 

 so far from reproducing vision, they have very rarely re- 

 duced (he prominence of the staphyloma so as to preclude 

 the need of other means to take away the deformitv. Scar- 

 pa, in his chapter on the staphyloma, expresses himself in 

 a similar way; and has adduced several cases of this disor- 

 der in children, in whom an ulceration on the surface of 

 the cornea was kept up by escharotic applications several 

 weeks, and yet no diminution was obtained by it, either in 

 the projection or opacity. If such be the result of the ex- 

 periment on the eyes of children, it certainly is less likely 

 to succeed on those of adults. The otlier mode which has 

 been proj)osed by authors, viz. that of compressing the tu- 

 mor, and thus restraining it from interferi\)g with the mo- 

 tion of the eyelids, is so difficult to be accomplished with 

 the necessary accuracy, that I remember only one case in 

 which it afforded any advantajje. In this instance a poor 

 man who had a staphyloma of one eye many years, and 



* Janin siir I'OCi!, sect. 8, paq;c 3S9 ct sequent, 

 f Kichtcr, f.iscicuius 2, page 105 et se<iuent. 



ronld 



