ON THE HORSE’S EYE. 
19 
Amongst the causes of iritis, a very frequent one is exposure 
to sudden changes of temperature, cold draughts of air, rain, 
wind, etc. 
Iritis is also of traumatic origin, being caused by mechan¬ 
ical or chemical injuries, which either affect the iris directly 
or secondarily. These foreign bodies may remain lodged for 
some time in the conjunctiva cornea anterior chamber, or in 
the deep tissues of the eve, and then set up iritis. 
A favorable or unfavorable termination of iritis depends 
largely upon the severity and the cause of the inflammation. 
If the patient can be seen in the' early stage of the disease, 
before any adhesions have taken place between the edge of 
the pupil and the capsule of the lens, or while these are yet so 
slight and brittle as to be readily broken down by the ener¬ 
getic use of atropine, then the result may be looked upon as 
favorable. The treatment consists in carefully guarding 
against the injurious influences of bright light and sudden 
changes of temperature, as well as cold and wet. The end 
greatly to be desired in the treatment of iritis is to obtain 
wide dilatation of the pupil as soon as possible, and hence a 
strong solution of atropine should be, at once, energetically 
applied to the eye. The effect of atropine in these cases is 
three-fold. Wide dilatation of the pupil is produced, and the 
iris is, therefore, removed from the contact with the anterior 
capsule of the lens, so that no adhesions can be formed be¬ 
tween them at the edge of the pupil, or on the posterior sur¬ 
face of the lens. Further rest will be afforded to the inflamed 
muscular tissue of the iris by a wide dilation of the pupil; 
also the tension of the eye will be diminished and the intra¬ 
ocular circulation relieved, which will diminish the state of 
congestion of the iris and ciliary body. 
If by a too strong solution of atropine, or the eye becomes 
irritated by using a moderate solution, and granulations be¬ 
gin to form on the lids, accompanied by swelling of the con¬ 
junctiva, this is best overcome by using a solution of alum, 
zinc or nitrate of silver, gr. ii, H 2 0 i, or should vesicles 
form, that condition can also be overcome by the use of 
borax, io grains to the ounce. 
