WORM IN THE EYE. VM 



" that any particular description of food or water is productive of 

 the disease." But, as Mr. Skeavington has properly remarked, it 

 is by no means evident '' how the humid atmosphere, the low 

 situation, the fog, the wet, or the cold, can produce worm in the 

 eye;" especially as horses in India are always kept in the stable : 

 Mr. Skeavington's own opinion being, that " the worm is taken up 

 at the time of drinking, in so minute a form that it is capable of 

 being absorbed; the water in India being supplied through im- 

 mense ponds or tanks, filled by deluges of rain" during the wet 

 seasons ; hardly any of them having springs. Mr. Skeavington, 

 in the course of his anatomical studies, has found worms " in 

 almost all the passages :" he recollects finding " an immense quan- 

 tity within the trachea of an ass, and within the bronchial tubes ;" 

 and in the same subject, encysted in small tumours, the size of 

 peas, within the colon, caecum, and rectum, worms resembling 

 ascarides ; some of them minute enough to bear a comparison to 

 " dust shot." 



The Remedy for Worm in the Eye consists in an operation 

 by which liberty is given, and death as the consequence, to the 

 disturber of the health of the visual organ. Supposing no opera- 

 tion is performed, the usual result, according to Mr. Gibb, is 

 ''opacity of the transparent cornea, and subsequent loss of sight of 

 the eye." In some instances in which opacity did not take place, 

 the worm was observed to be weakly, '' sluggish and feeble in its 

 movements," and soon died, and became absorbed : hence the reason 

 of the eye "remaining clear." In such cases Mr. Gibb "made it 

 a practice not to operate." 



The Operation is a very simple one. It consists in merely 

 puncturing the cornea with a common lancet, and giving exit to 

 the aqueous humour, the worm being^ expected to float out along 

 with it. Mr. Gibb's mode of operating is this : — He never finds 

 it requisite to cast the horse, nor to use any means to fix the eye : 

 but, with his left hand raises the upper eyelid, while an assistant 

 depresses the lower one ; and then, watching his opportunity, 

 punctures the cornea behind, and about a line's breadth, or a little 

 more, from its junction with the sclerotic coat. At the time the 

 puncture is making, he presses the eyeball with his left hand, and 



VOL. III. T 



