Treatment. The chief object of treatment under any circumstances must be to insure the most perfect cleanliness both of the globe of the eye and the conjunctival sacs.
The eye must, therefore, be irrigated with lukewarm water, the stream being injected beneath the lids. Each irrigation is followed by the use of an anodyne and astringent eye-wash containing borate of soda or sulphate of zinc, combined if necessary with cocaine.
| Distilled water | 100 | parts. |
| Borate of soda | 4 | „ |
| Hydrochlorate of cocaine | 1 | „ |
But saturated solution of boric acid is simple, and no less effective.
In contagious keratitis the eye lotion may contain 2 to 3 per cent. of nitrate of silver, the excess of silver being neutralised by washing out with a weak solution of common salt. After three or four applications this should be changed for a saturated solution of boric acid.
VERMINOUS CONJUNCTIVITIS.
This form of conjunctivitis, described by Rodes in 1819, is due to the presence of the Filaria lachrymalis, which varies in length between ⅜ of an inch and 1 inch.
Like ophthalmia, the disease attacks cattle reared in wet localities.
Symptoms. The symptoms are those of acute conjunctivitis, and consist first of lachrymation, then of injection of the blood-vessels of the conjunctiva, together with swelling of the eyelids and photophobia. The animals keep the eye closed, and display extreme sensitiveness. Here again cocaine proves of value.
Examination is rather difficult, the worms being sometimes displaced towards the cornea or membrana nictitans, although more commonly they remain hidden in the folds of the mucous membrane towards the point where the membrana nictitans is inserted. It is, therefore, necessary to thoroughly expose the folds of the mucous membrane in order to discover them.