DISORDERED EYES. 353 



It behoved me to take great heed, that, , for fome time 

 after the application of the bread, I did not go into a 

 place, where I fhould meet the fun beams. If at any 

 time I 'was unmindful of this rule, the rays firuck 

 like iharp pins upon my eyes, and they prefently be- 

 came inflamed. 



Every evening, fhortly before retiring to relr, I 

 went through the fame procefs. Only then I was ob- 

 liged to take the precaution, not to let it be more than 

 about eight minutes after the laying on of the wet 

 bread, ere I lay down in bed and clofed my eyes. If 

 I fat up longer, or went to bed immediately after the 

 application of the bread, with eyes Hill wet; I might 

 lay my account that they would be inflamed the next 

 morning. 



After I had purfued this method for a conliderable 

 time, I perceived a remarkable alleviation of my ruffe r-. 

 ings ; though what ftill remained to me was always 

 great enough to feem intolerable to any other^perfcn 

 lefs enured to patience than myfelf. For now, with 

 moderate pain, I could fray in a room lighted by a 

 dim lamp fhaded with a fcreen ; a happinefs to which 

 I had bid adieu for the remainder of my life. Indeed 

 I could neither read nor write by the feeble light of 

 fuch a lamp ; but I could yet beguile the long winter 

 evenings in a lefs melancholy way ; either by philofo- 

 phical meditations, or by familiar and improving con- 

 verfation with a friend. 



I therefore proceeded the more cheerfully and at- 

 tentively in the ufe of the fole remedy that had pro- 

 duced this happy alteration.*! gradually made attempts 

 to hold my eyes in cold water, and to open them in it. 



VOL. I. A A At 



