776 PEKCY FRIDENBERG 



* 



times, and the Papyros Ebers contains a description of the disease with 

 the advice to have the patients remain in a dark room and be fed with 

 ox liver. 



Hemeralopia with degenerative processes in the conjunctiva and cornea 

 have been noted in purely qualitative deficiencies of diet as in prisons, 

 after long fasts (Russia) as an expression of vitamin deficiency quite anal- 

 ogous to that produced experimentally in animals by withdrawal of the 

 fat soluble vitamin and relieved promptly by the administration of cod 

 liver oil. A connection with calcium metabolism is evident, but the 

 details have not been worked out. 



Intoxication and the poisoning by the toxins of spoilt sausage (B. botu- 

 linus), olives, and other canned but not properly preserved foods also 

 acts on the eye in the manner of belladonna poisoning, producing paresis 

 or paralysis of pupillary action and accommodation, with blurring of 

 vision due to these disturbances, but no optic nerve or retinal affection. 



Gastro-Intestinal Auto-intoxication was at one time as much over- 

 worked as an etiological agent in visual disturbances as, according to 

 Barker, it was in hypertension of the arteries. To paraphrase his ad- 

 vice, certainly, if chronic constipation or other disorders of the digestive 

 tract be found in patients with eye affections, corrective measures should 

 be instituted. In chronic uveitis, good results have attended the cleansing 

 of the lower intestinal tract by high colonic irrigations followed by an 

 alkalinization where the bowel contents were markedly acid and the im- 

 plantation of colonies of B. bulgaricus or iB. colonis according to the bac- 

 terial needs of the intestine as -determined by culture tests, as suggested 

 by Dwyer and others. The same dietetic and hygienic therapeutic meas- 

 ures might well be employed in optic nerve disease with obscure etiology 

 and evident disturbance of intestinal digestion. 



Intestinal parasites may cause ocular symptoms as a result of irritation 

 alone or by the entrance into the interior of the eye of their embryos 

 (cysticercus, echinococcus) or, more rarely, as in the case of bothrioceph- 

 alus, by toxic worm products entering the circulation and causing ocular 

 paralysis or inflammation. 



Trichinosis finds local expression in symmetrical edema of the fornix 

 fold, lids, and conjunctiva, which probably also affects the orbit as shown 

 by the usual accompaniment of slight exophthalmos. Marked hyperemia 

 and capillary conjunctival hemorrhages have also been noted. Paralyses 

 of the external ocular muscles, due to invasion by the parasite, are com- 

 paratively rare, while mydriasis and loss of accommodation are more fre- 

 quent. As trichina does not invade unstriped muscles, this must be 

 explained by toxic action, the nature of which has not been definitely de- 

 termined. 



When abdominal plethora was a favored expression, the asthenopia 

 often noted in obese and sedentary gluttons was attributed to this rather 



