OPHTHALMY. 
it not unfrequently ae acaufe of the ill fuccefs of the 
operation. ‘The fole defign of all ad ae fred treatment 
adopted before the ra Daag os is to leffen and prevent 
the apprehended inflammation. With this ee it was once 
the cuftom to keep ce pica a certain time on a low debi- 
litating diet, to hinder him from ta ng the air, to exhibit 
weakening aperient neutral falts, and even to have recourfe 
means, che irritability 0 of the pa- 
tient was increafed, and, of courfe, the enfuing inflammation, 
and all its bad effects, were aggraval Befides, the lon 
formal preparation tended to increafe the alarm which the 
patient generally felt before “the operation was undertaken ; 
t 
were iure to have an untav 
quences of the operation, 
Richter, that operations on the eyes are 
w 
endeavouring to 
quiet the patient’s ape eee by reprefenting what is 
by no mea ainful ; in 
tion 
terially beiedy and laftly, in arses an opiate, half 
an hour before the operation, when the patient feems reftlefs. 
Thefe dire&tions, however, are only applicable to cafes in 
which the patient is, in other refpects, quite healthy ; for it 
is effentially neceffary to obviate any other difeafes, or defects, 
which may prevent the fuccefs of the operation. (See 
Richter’s Anfangfgr. band iii. kap.1.) From thefe general 
obfervations we fhall next proceed to the confideration of 
each particular {pecies of ophthalm 
the mild acute Ophthalmy.—This form of the complaint 
is characterifed by rednefs of the conjunctiva and ee = 
the eye-lids, an unnatural fenfation of heat in the eyes, 
nneafinefs, itching and fhooting pains, as if particles of | find 
had got between the palpebre and the eye-ball. At the 
place where the pain feems to be moft fevere, there are fome 
The patient of his own ac- 
cord keeps his eye-lids clofed; for he feels a oars and 
aa tion fo vor ee 
cipali Malattie degli Occhi. 
This complaint is often thoes nfequence of a cold, in which 
the eyes, as well as the pituitary sain fauces, and tra- 
chea, are affeCted. It is not un 
healthy fandy countries i thet hot feafon o 
rey ‘hie 
rec of ophthalmy, authors have enu- 
merated, as others, the fuppreflion of fome habitual eva- 
cuation, fuch as pees from the nofe, of piles, ftoppage 
of the men i &c. Alfo affeGtions of the prime vite, worms, 
dentition, 
he mild acute ophthalmy may, in sa be eafily cured 
by means of low diet, gentle pur h {mall repeated 
aa of on a pee tt ard after making 
h for any extraneous body that may a ‘nfinasted it- 
cl haat “the eyelids repeatedly wafhin e with a 
w lea aves, and coreing “it wit Ly 
fhould be included in 
lows: 
Tart. is 
avy! inftead of the 
to soma 
which cold sige applications are poneeeee necef- 
as 
to alee the eye.lids adhere pees 
cretion 18 almoit fuppreffed, and the eyes become preter- 
a dry. ‘The sympathetic fever is confiderable, with 
reftleffnefs and intolerable pain about the back part of the 
head. The pupil is contracted; the conjun¢tiva of an uni- 
formly deep red naan On the anterior hemifphere of the 
eye, amongft the moft prominent fafciculi of veffels, may 
be Jiftingutthed a a ee vafcular network, continued from 
one fafciculus to another ; but all being equally turgid with 
blood, and coiled as it were together, feem to form a kind 
of ene which rifes above the furface of the eye, and 
is occafionally extravafated into the cellular fubftance, con- 
necting the tunica conjunGtiva with the felerotica. Hence 
the firft of thefe membranes, which is naturally loofe, be- 
comes enarmoufly extended, and elevated in front of the 
eyes 
