DISEASES OF THE EYE. 281 
and loss of the hair. If improvement follows, this discharge becomes 
more tenacious, and tends to cause adhesion to the edges of the upper 
and lower lids and to mat together the eyelashes in bundles. This 
gradually decreases to the natural amount, and the redness and con- 
gested appearance of the eye disappears, but swelling, thickening, 
and stiffness of the lids may continue for a time. There may be 
more or less fever according to the violence of the inflammation, but 
so long as there is no serious disease of the interior of the eye or of 
other vital organ, it is usually moderate. 
The local treatment consists in astringent, soothing lotions (sugar 
of lead 30 grains, laudanum 2 teaspoonfuls, rain water—boiled and 
cooled—1 pint), applied with a soft cloth kept wet with the lotion, 
and hung over the eye by tying it to the headstall of the bridle on the 
two sides. If the mucous membrane lining of the lids is the seat of 
little red granular elevations, a drop of solution of 2 grains of nitrate 
of silver in an ounce of distilled water should be applied with the soft 
end of a clean feather to the inside of the lid twice a day. The 
patient should be removed from all such conditions (pasture, faulty 
feed, exposure, etc.) as may have caused or aggravated the disease, 
and front dust and irritant fumes and gases. He should be fed from 
a manger high enough to favor the return of blood from the head, 
and should be kept from work, especially in a tight collar which 
would prevent the descent of blood by the jugular veins. The diet 
should be laxative and nonstimulating (grass, bran mashes, carrots, 
turnips, beets, potatoes, or steamed hay), and any costiveness should 
be corrected by a mild dose of raw linseed oil (1 to 14 pints). In 
cold weather warm blanketing may be needful, and even loose flannel 
bandages to the limbs, but heat should never be sought at the expense 
of pure air. 
(2) In inflammations due to local irritants of a noninfective kind 
a careful examination will usually reveal their presence, and the first 
step must be their removal with a pair of blunt forceps or the point 
of a lead pencil. Subsequent treatment will be in the main the local 
treatment advised above. 
(3) In case of infective inflammation there will often bé found a 
prick or tear by which the septic matter has entered, and in such case 
the inflammation will for a time be concentrated at that point. A 
round or conical swelling around an insect bite is especially character- 
istic. A snake bite is marked by the double prick made by the two 
teeth and by the violent and rapidly spreading inflammation. Ery- 
sipelas is attended with much swelling, extending beyond the lids 
and causing the mucous membrane to protrude beyond the edge of 
the eyelid (chemosis). This is characterized by a bright, uniform, 
rosy red, disappearing on pressure, or later by a dark, livid hue, but 
with less branching redness than in noninfecting inflammation and 
