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irritants, sand, etc.) in the eye, to wounds or inflammation of the mucous 

 membrane, or to disease of the brain. When due to local irritation, it 

 may be temporarily overcome by instilling a few drops of a 4 per 

 cent, solution of cocaine into the eye, when the true cause may be 

 ascertained and removed. The nervous or constitutional disease must 

 be treated according to its nature. 



Drooping eyelids— Ptosis. — This is usually present in the upper lid, or 

 is at least little noticed in the lower. It is sometimes but a symptom of 

 paralysis of one-half of the face, in which case the ear, lips, and nostrils 

 on the same side will be found soft, drooping, and inactive, and even 

 the half of the tongue may partalie of the palsy. If the same condition 

 exists on both sides there is difficult snuffling breathing, from the air 

 drawing in the flaps of the nostrils in inspiration, and all food is taken 

 in by the teeth, as the lips are useless. In both there is a free discharge 

 of saliva from the mouth during mastication. This paralysis is a fre- 

 quent result of injury, by a poke, to the seventh nerve, as it passes over 

 the back of the lower jaw. In some cases the paralysis is confined to 

 the lid, the injury having been sustained by the muscles which raise it, 

 or by the supra-orbital nerve which emerges from the bone just above 

 the eye. Such injury to the nerve may have resulted from fracture of 

 the orbital process of the frontal bone above the eye ball. 



The condition may, however, be due to spasm of the sphincter muscle, 

 which closes the lids, or to inflammation of the upper lid, usually a re- 

 sult of blows on the orbit. In the latter case it may run a slow course 

 with chronic thickening of the lid. 



The paralysis due to the poke may be often remedied by, first, the 

 removal of any remaining inflammation by a wet sponge worn beneath 

 the ear and kept in place by a bandage; second, when all inflammation 

 has passed by a blister on the same region, or by rubbing it daily with 

 a mixture in equal proportions of olive oil and strong aqua ammonia. 

 Improvement is usually slow, and it may be months before complete 

 recovery ensues. 



In paralysis from blows above the eyes the same treatment may be 

 applied to that part. 



Thickening of the lid may be treated by painting with tincture of 

 iodine, and that failing, by cutting out an ellipitical strip of the skin 

 from the middle of the upper lid and stitching the edges together. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE EYELIDS. 



The eyelids suffer more or less in all severe inflammations of the eye, 

 whether external or internal, but inasmuch as the disease sometimes 

 starts in the lids and at other times is exclusively confined to them, it 

 deserves independent mention. 



Among the causes may be named: exposure to draughts of cold air, 

 or to cold rain or snow-stormsj the bites or stings of mosquitoes, flies. 



