SECT. IX.—ON BURNING OF THE EYELIDS BY MEDICINES.
The burning of the eyelids with caustic medicines was reprobated, in a word, by all the ancients, lest the acrimony of the application should prove injurious to the eyes; and because when the burning was carried to too great an extent the affection called lagophthalmos was produced, in which case the eyelids cannot be shut, and the vision is apt to be injured by everything that comes in the way. But since many who suffer from the irritation of the ciliary hairs are not able to endure even the name of the operation by suture, we are compelled from necessity, against our will, to have recourse to burning by medicine. The following is a composition of that kind: of quicklime, p. ij; of Gallic or common soap, p. ij; and some add of aphronitrum, p. iv. These things being pounded with strained ley, or soap ley, or some other ley, as that of figs or of oaks, and being mixed with the urine of a young man not come to maturity, we apply to the eyelid, upon the knob of a specillum, the part touched having the shape of a myrtle leaf; and we burn to the extent comprehended in the operation by suture. The skin being burnt at the first application, we remove so much of it with a sponge, and apply the medicine a second time, allowing it to remain until the part blacken; and if it does not blacken we apply it a third time. When the skin is blackened and the eschar also formed, we must clean away the medicine and have recourse to bathing and washing until the eschar drop off; after which it will be proper to complete the cure by means of pledgets of charpie and emollient collyria.
Commentary. None of the other authorities describe this method of cure so minutely as our author, except Haly Abbas, who evidently copies from him. (Pract. ix, 71.) Rhases and Albucasis, however, also mention the operation. They direct us to burn the part with a preparation of quicklime and soap, with the addition of some caustic lixivia, or leys. These ancient leys, or lixivian ashes, appear to have been preparations of potass more or less pure. We need scarcely remark that these applications must have resembled the caustic paste, now used for forming issues. The method of treatment here described is, in principle, much the same as that performed by Quadri with sulphuric acid. A caustic paste very similar to that now used is described by Guy of Caulico. (vii, 1.)
The strained ley, of which mention is made by Paulus, was probably the same as the calx colata of Cælius Aurelianus. (Tard. Pass, v, 1.) It appears to have been an impure preparation of potass with the addition of some lime. It is the same, we suppose, as the πρωτόστακτον mentioned in the [Third Book] of this work. The calx colata would seem to have been identical with the Vienna paste now used in the treatment of varix. A composition for burning the eyelids, mentioned by Jesu Hali, contains lime, prepared beans, nitre, and sal ammoniac, formed into a paste with the water of soap and pure myrrh. Jesu, however, does not much approve of this method of treatment.