Church-Street, Soho,
January 1st, 1776.
AN
ENQUIRY, &c.
AMONG the various Diseases affecting the EYES, there is one still[16] unknown, which Practitioners have hitherto confounded with the Gutta Serena.
These are its characteristic Symptoms:—The Eye (when touched) becomes somewhat painful, without any apparent Cause; a Pression or Stiffness is felt inwardly; the lateral Motions of its Globe are performed with Difficulty; near situated Objects can no longer be seen; remote ones alone are distinguished at a fixed Distance, and even these imperfectly.
This singular Affection of the Eye, which has yet no Name, but which may be termed Accidental Presbytopia[17] or Long-sightedness, is ever the fatal Consequence of taking prepared Mercury without proper Care.
When Calomel, Panacea, Sublimate corrosive, or any other Mercurial Preparation in a saline Form, has been unseasonably administered, if not immediately evacuated by Purgatives, it passes with the Chyle into the Blood.
As it circulates, it unites with the Mucus, with which it has a more intimate Affinity than with any other of our Humours. Afterwards it is carried into the glandular Organs, there to be[18] secreted.
Whilst not yet united with the Mucus, if any of its Particles are of too large a Bulk to pass freely through the minute capillary Vessels, which it will have entered, it irritates their Coats with its sharp Angles: the Vessels contract; their Diameter being diminished thereby, the Lymph no longer permeates them freely; but, its Afflux continuing the same, distends their Cavity. The distended Vessels soon compress other minute adjacent ones; and these being obstructed and distended in their Turn, the whole Texture of the Organ they form is tumefied.[19]
Where nervous Fibres and Blood Vessels concur to the Constitution of the Organ, the Tumor is ever accompanied with a painful Inflammation.