220 DISEASES GLASS IT. 1. 4. 2. 



Nevertheless, when the pain is great, a poultice must be ap- 

 plied to keep the eyes moist, or a piece of oiled silk bound lightly 

 over them. Or thus, boil an egg till it is hard, cut it longitudi- 

 nally into two hemispheres, take out the yolk, sew the backs of 

 the two hollow hemispheres of the white to a ribbon, and bind 

 them over the eyes every night on going to bed; which, if nicely 

 fitted on, will keep the eyes moist without any disagreeable pres- 

 sure. See Class I. 1. 3. 14. 



Ophthalmia equina. An inflammation of this kind is liable to 

 affect the eyes of horses; one cause of which is owing to a silly 

 custom of cutting the hair out of horses' ears; by which they 

 are not only liable to take cold at the ear, but grass-seeds are liable 

 to fall into their ears from the high racks in stables; and in both 

 cases the eye becomes inflamed by sympathy. I once directed 

 the temporal artery of a horse to be opened, who had frequent re- 

 turns of an inflamed eye; and I believed it was of essential ser- 

 vice to him; it is probable that the artery was afterwards con- 

 tractedin the wounded part, and that thence less blood was derived 

 to the eye: the haemorrhage was stopped by two persons alter- 

 nately keeping their fingers on the orifice, and afterwards by a long 

 bandage of broad tape. 



2. Pterigion. Eye-wing. A spot of inflammation sometimes 

 begins on the inside of the lower eye-lid, or on the tunica albu- 

 ginea, and spreads an intertexture of red vessels from it, as from 

 a centre, which extend on the white part of the eye, and have the 

 appearance of the wing of a fly, from whence its name. 



M. M. Cut the ramifications of vessels again and again, with 

 the point of a lancet, close to the centre of inflammation. Touch 

 them repeatedly with lunar caustic. See Home on the Urethra. 

 Page 101. 



Mr. Hadley of Derby procured an ingenious instrument to be 

 made to cut the vessels, which had spread their numerous 

 branches over an opaque cornea, after a violent inflammation; 

 by which they were repeatedly divided, with little pain to the 

 patient, as there was no necessity to hold them by a forceps. The 

 instrument was in the form of a corn-sickle, or the early crescent 

 of the new moon, about an inch in length, the inner edge of the 

 curve was sharp, and the point fine; the back was rounded and 

 smooth, and the other end fixed in an ivory handle. The point of 

 this was suddenly introduced under the branches of the new ves- 

 sels, which were thus cut upwards, and there was no occasion to 

 hold the eye, or the trunks of the vessels. 



3. Tarsitis palpebrarum. Inflammation of the edges of the 

 eyelids. This is a disease of the glands, which produce the hairs 

 of the eyelashes, and is frequently the cause of their falling off. 



