PERIODIC OPHTHALMIA. 00 



like beneficial result ; and even mercury has been used in some 

 cases with such doubtful impression on the disease that one could 

 hardly say whether it had done good or not. Mr. Morton has 

 spoken favourably of the prot-iodide of mercury, a preparation com- 

 bining, in some degree, the powers both of mercury and iodine, 

 besides, probably, other properties not to be found in either of 

 them. 



I will not pretend to recommend any medicine as a specific, or 

 even as in every case to be depended upon as affording relief; but 

 that which I continue to put most faith in is mercury : not mercury 

 as exhibited in the common ineffective form, denominated altera- 

 tive ; but mercury given in doses of one drachm of calomel, com- 

 bined with five grains of opium, every eight hours, until palpable 

 effect is produced on the mouth and breath. 



Counter-irritation is by some practitioners employed; by 

 others, not. A rowel may be inserted underneath the jaw; a seton 

 may be passed underneath the skin below the eye ; a blister may 

 be applied behind or below the ear, or — as was the practice with 

 our professional predecessors, the farriers — a liquid blister may be 

 rudely rubbed upon the lids of the affected eye, Avith the certain 

 result of some of the vesicatory getting between the lids, and irri- 

 tating the conjunctiva. What a barbarous practice this appears ! 

 and yet it is often found to be, in the end, productive of good. 

 Fresh and intense inflammation is temporarily excited by the acrid 

 stimulation of the cantharides, and for some days afterwards it 

 appears as if fuel had been added to the fire already existing ; but, 

 ultimately, it mostly turns out that the eye clears, and becomes 

 restored to a degree we could hardly have anticipated. I have 

 seen my father pass setons of thread or silk through portions of the 

 conjunctiva, leaving them hanging out of the eye until copious sup- 

 puration had come on ; and in some chronic cases a good deal of 

 relief appeared in time to have been afforded by them. 



COLLYRIA. — A good deal of change of opinion has taken place 

 among medical men concerning the strength and proportionate effi- 

 cacy of topical applications to mucous membranes : at one time mere 

 astriction or slight stimulation was considered to be all the effect that 

 was requisite or safe to be produced ; nowadays, however, stimula- 



