OPHTHALMIA. 269 



part of the eye itself, by means of the point of a fine lancet, with 

 very great benefit; and in others, where much obstinacy in the 

 complaint has shewn itself, particularly in foul-coated dogs, a seton 

 in the neck has done much good. After the active symptoms have 

 disappeared, should any opacity of the cornea remain, a small 

 pinch of a powder may be sprinkled into the eye once or twice 

 a-day, composed of one scruple of acetate of lead and one drachm 

 of calomel. 



Ophthalmia of Distemper. — This might be called a specific 

 ophthalmia^ from peculiarities attending it : or it might be named 

 symptomatic, as being an accompaniment of a particular disease. 

 That it is very different from idiopathic ophthalmia is proved by 

 its consequences ; for while the remaining effects of the idiopathic 

 attack are in the ratio of the intensity of the inflammation, in the 

 symptomatic they bear no proportion whatever to it. The dis- 

 temper, as an inflammatory afi^ection of the mucous membranes, 

 might be supposed, a priori, likely to extend its affection to the 

 eyes also, which it does in a marked degree, and with almost in- 

 variable certainty ; so that distemper is frequently characterized as 

 a defluxion from the eyes and nose. The early symptoms of this 

 ophthalmia are not unlike those which betoken the idiopathic 

 attack, except that a more early and more abundant appearance 

 of a purulent secretion is common. The injection of the opaque, 

 and the cloudiness of the transparent cornea, are, in the cases I 

 point at, intense ; to which very frequently succeeds, in the very 

 centre of the pupil, a minute circular speck of ulceration that 

 sometimes remains stationary during the distemper. At others, it 

 extends both in depth and breadth ; sometimes so much as to eva- 

 cuate the aqueous humour : when this occurs, there usually follows 

 a luxuriant sprouting of fungoid granulations, which give great 

 pain, and at last, to all appearance, totally disorganize the eye. 

 It is now that the peculiarity of this ophthalmia shews itself; for 

 from this apparent ruin of the structure of the eye it will gradually 

 reinstate itself, and very often there will not remain a trace of 

 injury behind. The disease is most frequently confined to one eye 



