DISEASES OF THE EYE. 283 



ENTROPION AND ECTROPION, OR INVERSION AND EVERSION OF THE EYELID. 



These are respectively caused by wounds, sloughs, ulcers, or other 

 causes of loss of substance of the mucous membrane on the inside of 

 the lid and of the skin on the outside ; also of tumors, skin diseases, 

 or paralysis which leads to displacement of the margin of the eyelid. 

 As a rule, they require a surgical operation, with removal of an ellip- 

 tical portion of the mucous membrane or skin, as the case may be, but 

 which requires the skilled and delicate hand of the surgeon. 



TRICHIASIS. 



This consists in the turning in of the eyelashes so as to irritate the 

 front of the eye. If a single eyelash, it may be snipped off with scis- 

 sors close to the margin of the eyelid or pulled out by the root with a 

 pair of flat-bladed forceps. If the divergent lashes are more numer- 

 ous, the treatment may be as for entropion, by excising an elliptical 

 portion of skin opposite the offending lashes and stitching the edges 

 together, so as to draw outward the margin of the lid at that point. 



WARTS AND OTHER TUMORS OF THE EYELIDS. 



The eyelids form a favorite site for tumors, and above all, warts, 

 which consist in a simple diseased overgrowth (hypertrophy) of the 

 surface layers of the skin. If small, they may be snipped off with 

 scissors or tied around the lieck with a stout, waxed thread and left 

 to drop off, the destruction being completed, if necessary, by the 

 daily application of a piece of sulphate of copper (blue vitriol), 

 until any unhealthy material has been removed. If more widely 

 spread, the wart may still be clipped off with curved scissors or 

 knife, and the caustic thoroughly applied day by day. 



A bleeding wart, or erectile tumor, is more liable to bleed, and is 

 best removed by constricting its neck with the waxed cord or rubber 

 band, or if too broad it may be transfixed through its base by a 

 needle armed with a double thread, which is then to be cut in two 

 and tied around the two portions of the neck of the tumor. If still 

 broader, the armed needle may be carried through the base of the 

 tumor at regular intervals, so that the whole may be tied in moder- 

 ately sized sections. 



In gray and in white horses black, pigmentary tumors (melanotic) 

 are common on the black portions of skin, such as the eyelids, and are 

 to be removed by scissors or knife, according to their size. In the 

 horse they do not usually tend to recur when thoroughly removed, 

 but at times they prove cancerous (as is the rule in man) , and then 

 they tend to reappear in the same site or in internal organs with, it 

 may be, fatal effect. 



