38 SPECIAL VETERINARY THERAPY 



practice it can hardly be carried out without inflicting 

 additional injury to the delicate parts involved. 



The treatment described below has been used suc- 

 cessfully since 1908 and if carefully and persistently 

 carried out a cure can nearly always be obtained 

 within a reasonable time, usually four weeks. 



One of the important steps in beginning this treat- 

 ment is to give explicit instructions to the person in 

 whose care the animal is while imder treatment, as 

 regards the great delicacy and absolute cleanliness 

 with which the eye must be handled. Too much 

 stress can not be put on this point. The average 

 horseman uses very poor judgment in this respect. 



The treatment begins with a very gentle removal 

 of clots of mucus from the inner canthus. Some of 

 this is always present and a clean piece of absorbent 

 cotton is to be used for this purpose. Following this, 

 a lump of two per cent yellow oxide of mercury oint- 

 ment of about the size of a grain of corn, is gently 

 placed in the eye at the inner canthus and the lids 

 gently pressed together with the fingers. 



This is done once each day until recovery occurs, 

 and every second or third day an innunction is made 

 on the course of the facial portion of the duct, (that 

 is, from just below the eye to within a few inches of 

 the nose) with half strength mercurial ointment. This 

 should be gently massaged in over the approximate 

 course of the duct. 



If it is desired to hasten recovery, a course of iodide 

 of potassium will be helpful. 



