Chap, iv.] THE ORBIT AND EYE. 49 



part supplied by the nasal nerve, i.e., runs down the 

 side of the nose, then there is very commonly some 

 inflammation of the eye-ball. In frontal neuralgia 

 watering of the eye (irritation of the lachrymal branch) 

 is very frequently met with. 



The dangerous area of the eye. Pene- 

 trating wounds of the cornea alone, or of the sclerotic 

 alone, behind the ciliary region, are by no means 

 serious but wounds involving the ciliary body, or its 

 immediate vicinity, are apt to assume the gravest 

 characters. Inflammation in the ciliary region is 

 peculiarly obnoxious, on account of the important 

 vascular and nerve anastomoses that take place in the 

 part. Indeed, as regards blood and nerve supply, there 

 is no more important district in the eye-ball. From 

 the ciliary body also inflammations can spread, more 

 or less, directly to the cornea, iris, choroid, vitreous, 

 and retina. Plastic, or purulent inflammation of the 

 ciliary body, after injury, is the usual starting point 

 of sympathetic ophthalmia. In this terrible affection 

 destructive inflammation is set up in the sound eye, 

 which is, however, not usually involved until two or 

 three months after the other eye has been injured. 

 u Although at present the exact nature of the process 

 which causes sympathetic inflammation is unknown, 

 and though its path has not been fully traced out, it is 

 certain (1) that the change starts from the region 

 most richly supplied by branches of the ciliary nerves, 

 viz., the ciliary body and iris ; (2) that its first effects 

 are generally seen in the same part of the sympathising 

 eye ; (3) that the exciting eye has nearly always been 

 wounded, and in its anterior part ; and that decided 

 plastic inflammation of its uveal tract is always 

 present ; (4) that inflammatory changes have in some 

 cases been found in the ciliary nerves and optic nerve 

 of the exciting eye. The morbid influence has of late 

 years been generally believed to pass along the ciliary 





