330 On Egyptian Ophthalmin. 



eminent oculist, were tried to their fullest extent, under the 

 suf>eriiitendance of himself and his son; and, though the 

 violence of the complaint was reduced, it was not eradi- 

 cated. 



On niv being officially requested, by the acting com- 

 mittee of this parochial establishment, to undertake the 

 treatment of these patients, I stited to the attending sur- 

 geons of the house, Messrs. Uppom and Lewis, of Warren- 

 street, Filzroy-square, that some facts had come within my 

 knowledge, which led me to believe that this alarming dis- 

 ease mioht be stopped in its progress by the energetic use 

 of emetics. JMr. Lewis, under whose care the ophthalmic 

 patients princiallv came, wndertook to superintend the ex- 

 periment in the Hrst cases of the acute form of the disease 

 which should be brought to tlie infirmary. 



The process was simply to yive such a ijuanlity of emetic 

 tartar as would keep up constant sickness and vnniting lor 

 eight or ten hours ; at the same time applying within 

 the eve lids some of the unsr. hydrarg. nitri oxyd. This 

 succeeded perfectly. V^omiting was then tried without the 

 oiutincat, and was cquallv successtul. 



The following extract from a document, written by Mr. 

 J^cwis, and sent to His Royal Highness the Commander in 

 Chief, stales a series of facts explanatory of the process, 

 and its success. 



" Durinr the first fortnight of the present month (Janu- 

 arv 1813), thirteen patients with the Egyptian ophthalmia 

 were adnntled into the infirmary of the St. Pancras work- 

 l\ou-e. The treatment suggested by Mr. Adams was ini- 

 mediacelv put in practice, and perfectly succeeded in re- 

 moving the disease in a few hours in every case except one, 

 tl^it orjohn Kenny. This man had the ophthalmia three 

 months since. Bv large bleedings and blisters, his eves 

 were preserved, and the acute inflammation subsided; but 

 jlie disease of the inner men)brane of the eye-lid still re- 

 mained, and every trifling cold caused a relapse of violent 

 iullannnalion. At this time he had an attack of the acute 

 disease in one eye. In less than eight hours after the me- 

 thod proposed by Mr, Adams had been employed, the inflam- 

 mation was cou'pletelv removed. A few days after, the 

 other eye became similarly afltcted. For five days he per- 

 versely delayed the methods which had preserved his other 

 eye; wlicn extensive ulceration of the transparent cornea 

 took place, and vision in this eye was entirely destroyed. 



" In all these cases, the extreme pain which attended the 

 onaei of the disease, together with the rapidly increasing 



mflammatiou. 



