148 



LACERx\TION OF THE EYELID. 



This is by no means an uncommon accident. By a bite from a 

 horse standing in the next stall, or from hitching the lid upon some 

 nail left projecting in the head-boarding or side-lining of the stall, 

 every now and then a horse gets the external or ciliary border of 

 the upper eyelid — the part from which the eye-lashes are grow- 

 ing — torn from the broad expanse of the lid, and left hanging by a 

 slender portion of skin from the outer angle of it : the laceration 

 commonly commencing from the inner, superior, and most pro- 

 jecting part of the lid ; though sometimes the reverse is the case. 

 In this lesion, the ligamento-cartilaginous substance, called the 

 tarsal cartilage, to which the eyelid owes it form and consistence, 

 is torn through : the thickest and firmest parts of it being incor- 

 porated in the ciliary border; the remainder being retracted by 

 the levator palpehrce muscle, with which its fibres are inseparably 

 intermingled. In general, for so small a wound, there is a good 

 deal of heemorrhage; and it is an accident that commonly, to an un- 

 professional man, assumes an appearance of an aw^ful nature. For- 

 tunately, however, for the veterinarian, it is one by which, with a 

 little dexterity and attention, he may often acquire considerable 

 credit for his surgery. 



The Treatment consists in the accurate approximation of the 

 lacerated parts, as nearly as possible in their natural juxta-position, 

 by suture. First, cleanse the eye from blood ; and then — the horse 

 being twitched, and having his head secured and steadied by as- 

 sistants — with a small, sharp, crooked needle, armed with a double 

 ligature of strong sewing silk, neatly and securely stitch the 

 severed portion to the body of the eyelid. The interrupted suture 

 is the one, perhaps, best suited to the case. As soon as complete 

 cohesion appears to have taken place between the wounded parts — 

 certainly not before — or when purulent matter is seen oozing 

 around the edges of the stitches, the sutures may be divided and 

 withdrawn : this will not be in less than a week ; it may take a 

 longer time. 



A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF THE TREATxMENT — that without 



