DISEASES OF THE EYE. 265 



WHITE SPECKS AND CLOUDINESS OF THE CORNEA. 



As a result of external ophthalmia, opaque specks, clouds, or hazi- 

 ness are too often left on the cornea and require for their removal 

 that they be daily touched with a soft feather dipped in a solution of 

 3 grains nitrate of silver in 1 ounce distilled water. This should be 

 applied until all inflammation has subsided, and until its contact is 

 comparatively painless. It is rarely successful with an old thick scar 

 following an ulcer, nor with an opacity having red blood vessels 

 running across it. 



tTLCERS OF THE CORNEA. 



These may be treated with nitrate of silver lotion of twice the 

 strength used for opacities. Powdered gentian, one-half ounce, and 

 sulphaite of iron, one-fourth ounce daily, may improve the general 

 health and increase the reparatory power. 



INTERNAL OPHTHALMIA (iRITIS, CHOROIDITIS, AND RETINITIS). 



Althoiigh inflammations of the iris, choroid, and retina — the inner, 

 vascular, and nervous coats of the eye — occur to a certain extent inde- 

 pendently of each other, yet one usually supervenes upon the other, 

 and, as the symptoms are thus made to coincide, it will be best for 

 our present purposes to treat the three as one disease. 



Causes. — The causes of internal ophthalmia are largely those of the 

 external form only, acting with greater intensity or on a more suscep- 

 tible eye. Severe blows, bruises, punctures, etc., of the eye, the 

 penetration of foreign bodies into the eye (thorns, splinters of iron, 

 etc.), sudden transition from a dark stall to bright sunshine, to the 

 glare of snow or water, constant glare from a sunny window, abuse 

 of the overdraw checkrein, vivid lightning flashes, drafts of cold, 

 damp air; above all, when the animal is perspiring, exposure in cold 

 rain and snow storms, swimming cold, rivers; also certain general 

 diseases like rheumatism, arthritis, influenza, and disorders of the 

 digestive organs, may become complicated by this affection. From 

 the close relation between the brain and eye — alike in the blood ves- 

 sels and nerves — disorders of the first lead to affections of the second, 

 and the satae remark applies to the persistent irritation to which the 

 jaws are subjected in the course of dentition. So potent is the last 

 agency that we dread a recurrence of ophthalmia so long as dentition 

 is incomplete, and hope for immunity if the animal completes its 

 dentition without any permanent structural change in the eye. 



SyTnptoms. — The symptoms will vary according to the cause. If 

 the attack is due to direct physical injury, the inflammation of the 

 eyelids and superficial structures may be quite as marked as that of the 

 interior of the eye. If, on the other hand, from general causes, or as 

 a complication of some distant disease, the affection may be largely 

 Digitized by Microsoft® 



