VOL. LXXXVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. &y 



In conversing with my friend Dr. Russell on the manner in which the Arabians 

 treat inflammations and opacities of the cornea, he favoured me with the following 

 account. « Respecting the practice of the Arabians in disorders of the eyes, I 

 find nothing of consequence in my papers. An oculist among them is a distinct 

 profession ; and the collyria they apply are secret compositions, which pass heredi- 

 tarily from father to son. The Arabian writers give a number of recipes, most of 

 which are taken from Galen and the Greek physicians. One composition in Avi- 

 cenna contains the gall of a crow, crane, partridge, goat, &c. At Aleppo, the 

 gall of the sheet fish, silurusglanisof Linn, was in particular request; but it should 

 be remarked, that they always add to the gall other ingredients, it being a material 

 circumstance in that country, that a recipe should consist of a multitude of ingre- 

 dients. What often struck me in their practice was the successful application of 

 sharp or acrid remedies, at a time I should have been induced to make use of the 

 mildest emollient applications." 



From this account given by Dr. Russell there can be no doubt of gall having 

 continued in use, as an application to the eye among the eastern nations, from the 

 time of Tobit down to the present day. I have in the course of the last 3 years 

 made many trials of the effects of gall, as an application to the cornea in a diseased 

 state. I have used it pure, and diluted ; and compared its effects with those of the 

 unguentum hydrarg. nitrati, and the solution of the argentum nitratum ; and find 

 in old cases of opacity it is, in some instances, the best application. The gall of 

 quadrupeds, in these trials, gave more pain than the gall of fish. The painful sen- 

 sation was very severe for an hour or 2, and then went off. The beneficial effects 

 it produces appear to be in proportion to the local violence at the time of its ap- 

 plication. 



To enter further into the practical part of the treatment for removing opacities 

 from the cornea, would be foreign to the pursuits of the r. s., which I consider to 

 be confined to the general principles of the different branches of science, and to 

 collecting facts out of which new principles may be formed, or those already known 

 better established. The practice of applying very stimulating applications to the 

 cornea, has stood the test of 25 centuries, it can therefore require no support. 

 The object of the present observations has been to explain the principle on which 

 beneficial effects depend, a knowledge of which may serve as a guide to regulate 

 our practice. It will guard us against using such medicines while the inflammatory 

 action is increasing ; it will lead us to adopt them the moment the inflammation 



much : next morning she could not open them, the water as it were glueing her eyes up : he bathed 

 them with pure water, and she began to see with the eye which had received the most liquor. He used 

 the gall again in the evening : the inflammation dispersed, the white of her eyes became red, their co- 

 lour returned by degrees, and her sight became strong. He repeated it a 3d time, with all the desired 

 success. In short, she recovered her sight without any other remedy. The widow Germain is in her 

 53d year. She had been pronounced blind by the surgeons of the Hotel-Dieu : and her blindness and 

 cure have been attested by order of the lieutenant-general of police. She sees stronger and clearer now 

 than before the accident." Annual Register, vol. xi. page 143. — Orig. 



