Treatise on the Diseases of the Eye, 209 



if necessary, three times a day, will often be of use. In some cases 

 the application of leeches and emetics will be found to afford relief, 

 when the symptoms of congestion, and derangement of the stomach 

 are present. The restoration of the usual discharges, as of the cata- 

 minia, by the application of leeches, &c. will be found of great use. 



Sometimes persons are found in this country who are unable to 

 judge of colours, although their sight is good in other respects. 

 This appears to be a congenital affection proceeding from a defect of 

 the brain, rather than of any of the parts composing the eye-ball.' , 



There is also some account of that specific inflammation of 

 the globe, especially with sudden sloughing of the cornea, 

 which at times destroys the eye in a couple of days, and pre- 

 vails among jail prisoners and others suffering from extreme 

 debility. We have seen it chiefly in cases of diarrhoea conse- 

 quent on fever, and never met with a more unmanageable 

 disease : (pp. 141, 76.) 



" Specific inflammation of the globe. — Under this head I shall 

 describe a disease very common in India, which, from its destructive 

 nature, deserves careful attention, more particularly as it has not 

 been sufficiently attended to, and as it should be treated in a peculiar 

 manner. Like other diseases of the globe, the disease attacks some 

 of the tissues of the eye more than others, and on this account the 

 sloughing ulcer of the cornea has already been described under the 

 head of symptomatic sloughing of the cornea, and I shall here confine 

 myself to the complications produced by a peculiar state of the 

 system which is not unfrequently the cause of the loss of sight. 



The inflammation and suppuration terminating in sloughing of 

 the cornea, which was produced by dividing the nerves which sup- 

 ply the eye ; and feeding animals on unazotized substances, or keeping 

 them long fasting, has the same effect on animals in producing the 

 diseases of the eyes, as living on food which have imperfect nourish- 

 ment, and thus lowering the powers of life. The constant use of rice 

 predisposes to these distressing ulcers of the cornea, which sometimes 

 attacks whole ship's companies ; and the lascars complain bitterly 

 should rice be at any time substituted for biscuit ; and the reason 



2 E 



