94 OPHTHALMIA. 



SPECIFIC OPHTHALMIA, OR MOON-BLINDNESS. 



Should three or four days pass, and the inflammation not be 

 abated,, we may begin to suspect that it is Ophthalmia, especially 

 if the eye is very impatient of light, and the cornea is considerably 

 clouded The aqueous humor then often loses its transparency — 

 even the iris changes its color, and the pupil is exceedingly con- 

 tracted. The veterinary surgeon has now an obstinate disease to 

 combat, and one that will generally maintain its ground in spite 

 of all his efforts. For three, or four, or five weeks, the inflam- 

 mation will remain undiminished ; or if it appears to yield on one 

 day, it will return with redoubled violence on the next. A.t 

 length, and often unconnected with any of the means that have 

 been used, the eye begins to bear the light, the redness of the 

 membrane of the lid disappears, the cornea clears up, and the 

 only vestige of disease which remains is a slight thickening of 

 the lids and apparent uneasiness when exposed to a very strong 

 light. 



If the owner imagines that he has got rid of the diseE.se, he 

 will be sadly disappointed, for, in the course of' six weeks, or 

 two months, either the same eye undergoes a second and similar 

 attack, or the other one becomes affected. All again seems to 

 pass over, except that the eye is not so perfectly restored, and 

 a slight, deeply-seated cloudiness begins to appear ; and after 

 repeated attacks, and alternations of disease firom eye to eye, 

 the affair terminates in opacity of the lens or its capsule, at- 

 tended with perfect blindness either of one eye or both. This 

 affection was formerly known by the name of moon-blindness, 

 from its periodical return, and some supposed influence of the 

 moon. That body, however, has not, and cannot have, anything 

 to do with it. 



What is the practitioner doing all this while ? He is an 

 anxious and busy, but almost powerless spectator. He foments 

 the eyes with warm water, or applies cold lotions, with the ex- 

 tract of lead or opium, or poultices to which these drugs may be 

 added ; he bleeds, not from the temporal artery, for that does 

 not supply the orbit of the eye, but from the angular vein at 

 the inner corner of the eye, or he scarifies the lining of the lid, 

 or subtracts a considerable quantity of blood from the jugular 

 vein. The scarifying of the conjunctiva, which may be easily 

 accomplished without a -twitch, by exposing the inside of the 



charged from the corner of the eye after the first day or two. A cut from 

 a whip generally leaves a streak on the surface of the eye (unless the in- 

 jury is sufficient to involve the whole surface), and this streak sometimes 

 becomes permanent. 



