The Head and Neck 43 



form a surface against which to work so that the body be not pressed 

 entirely into the anterior chamber. In human surgery the Haab 

 magnet is employed to remove steel splinters. It compels the splin- 

 ter to retrace the tract by which it entered, even from the lens. When 

 a foreign body is within the anterior chamber it must be extracted by 

 means of fine forceps or curette through an incision made at the in- 

 ferior border, everything being done aseptically. In ca«e of hernia 

 of the iris the latter may be replaced with a sterilized sound or 

 the protruding portion excised and the stump returned, instillations 

 of eserine being used afterwards to cause its withdrawal from the 

 wound. Intraocular hemorrhage is a serious condition, and it is 

 seldom that any treatment short of enucleation is of use. Puncture 

 is useless. 



PARASITES. 



Filaria may occur as evidenced by an observation made by 

 Rossi. In this case there was kerato-conjunctivitis, which devel- 

 oped into ophthalmia. A fistula and staphyloma formed, and the 

 eye was extirpated. The anterior chamber contained a purulent 

 exudate in the center of which a female filaria was found. 



At the Pisa College an instance of a tick attaching itself to the 

 lower border of the cornea has been noted. In this case there were 

 profuse secretion of tears and spasmodic closure of the lids. 



Treatment. In the case of filaria, its exit must be prompted by 

 puncturing under cocaine anesthesia the cornea at its superior border 

 with a fine scalpel introduced flatwise and causing it to escape with 

 the flow of aqueous humor. Ticks may be detached, under local 

 cocaine anesthesia. 



CONJUNCTIVITIS. 



Inflammation of the conjunctiva is the commonest ocular trou- 

 ble with which we have to deal. It is induced by ordinary pyogenic 

 microorganisms or a mixed infection, and it is also probable that it 

 is due in some instances to a specific infection. The provocative fac- 

 tors are traumatic lesions, foreign bodies, primary infectious 

 diseases such as distemper and inflammations of the respiratory 

 tract, and any condition tending to expose or irritate the con- 

 junctiva, such as ectropion, entropion, sequestration dermoid, nea- 



