17, 1 
Velarde: Corneal Paracentesis 
73 
The case of a four-year old child, whose eye was hit by a 
piece of tin can while playing with other children, was purely 
accidental. The injuries caused by sticks, fish tail, coconut 
shell, buri strip, and a piece of bone were all accidental, not occu- 
pational. 
The two cases who could not give a definite account of their 
eye lesions gave the history of getting up in the morning with 
their eyes red and painful. The condition got worse, and the 
cornea became white with definite signs of infection. 
It is a very common practice among our masses to submit 
the injured eyes to various dangerous and unscientific procedures 
of the “herbolarios” and quacks who practice what is commonly 
known as “cahig.” It is certainly surprising that in this stage 
of our national progress not only the poor ignorant ones sub- 
mit themselves to these herbolarios (Chinese and Filipino quacks 
who employ unscientific manipulations), but also many of what 
we may classify as educated. I still from time to time meet a 
few cases of those who pour human urine into the eyes when 
they are infected. Much more frequently, however, we observe 
people instructing that human milk be dropped into the diseased 
eyes. These are among the many factors which contribute to 
making a slight injury to the cornea result in serious infection 
and, not rarely, terminating in total loss of vision. 
The patients admitted to the hospital who were submitted to 
corneal paracentesis were nearly all advanced cases, having poor 
vision ; most of them could only perceive light, while others had 
totally lost vision. They are as a rule left abandoned and the 
patients do not consult the physician until it is too late to carry 
out any satisfactory treatment. The following table shows the 
duration of illness of these patients: 
Duration of illness before admission to hospital. 
Less than one week 
One week 
Two weeks 
Three weeks 
One month 
Two months 
Three months 
Five months 
Nine months 
Patients. 
2 
5 
2 
2 
4 • 
1 
1 
1 
1 
Judging from this table, nineteen cases had their eyes injured 
long before they came for hospital treatment. A few of them, 
however, consulted regular practicing physicians and eye spe- 
cialists before admission. We should always take into account 
