148 Ibid., 1869, p. 387.
Relapsing typhus fever is frequently followed by amblyopia and inflammation of one or both eyes. Considerable variety in the intensity and in the symptoms of the disease has been manifested in different epidemics, and the ratio of the percentage of eye cases has greatly varied. In most outbreaks of relapsing typhus fever amblyopia is followed by inflammation. This was the sequence of the symptoms in the epidemic in Dublin in 1826, in Glasgow in 1845, and in Finland in 1865, although in the last-mentioned the inflammatory symptoms were less prominent and severe than in the first two. The eye symptoms rarely develop during the first attack of the fever, but usually occur after a second or third attack or during convalescence. The earliest careful study of the eye symptoms in a severe epidemic is that of Wallace,149 who tells us that "there is often that haggard and worn aspect, that sickly, mottled, pallid hue of skin, that sleepy, exhausted, and oppressed appearance of the eye, which is more easily observed than described. The patient only half opens the lids of the affected organ. They are of a purplish-red color and humid. Their subcutaneous vessels are preternaturally enlarged. The vascularity of the sclerotic and conjunctiva is greatly increased. The vessels of the former describe a reticulated zone round the cornea, and those of the latter run in a direction more or less straight to the edge of this membrane, and sometimes appear to pass on the edge. The hue of the redness is peculiar; it is a dark brick-red. The pupil is generally much contracted, and its edge thickened and irregular. The iris is altered in color, generally greenish, and incapable of motion. There exists dimness of the cornea, which may be compared to the appearance glass assumes when it has been breathed upon. There is often a turbidness of the aqueous humor, and a pearly appearance of the parts behind the iris may be observed by looking through the pupil. There is great intolerance of light, and a copious, hot lachrymal discharge. The vision will be found for the most part so extremely imperfect that the patient can merely distinguish light from darkness, and he is often tormented by flashes of light which shoot across his eye, and these occur more particularly in dark places; or he is troubled by brilliant spectres or by the constant presence of muscæ volitantes. There is very considerable pain, which returns in paroxysms, and these are almost always more severe at night. The pain is sometimes referred to the ball of the eye, sometimes to one of the lids, sometimes to the temple or to the circumference of the orbit." Mackenzie agrees in the main with the foregoing description: his cases were also accompanied by severe inflammation, with hypopyon and copious precipitates in the membrane of Descemet and on the anterior capsule of the lens. He also called attention to the diminution of the intraocular tension and the consequent flabbiness of the eyeball, and states that out of 1877 cases of fever admitted to the Glasgow Infirmary during the epidemic of 1843, 261 (one-seventh) were attacked by the disease of the eye. Anderson,150 who describes the same epidemic later in the course, takes exception to Wallace's statement that there is always an amaurotic stage at the outset of the disease. He computes these cases at two-thirds of the entire number, and tabulates five cases of inflammation without amaurosis. He also describes and gives plates which show opacities of the vitreous, posterior synechia, pigment on the anterior capsule, posterior polar cataract, and other forms of lenticular degeneration; these conditions ensuing not only in this disease, but in all other affections where the circulation in the ciliary body and the constitution of the vitreous are profoundly involved. Schweigger, in describing an epidemic in Berlin, says that in one-third of the cases of ophthalmia there was simple unilateral iritis, and that in a second third there was diffuse punctiform or flocculent vitreous opacities without any trace of iritis or external symptoms of disease; while in the remaining third there was iritis with vitreous opacities in common: when it ensues in its usual form the effects of annular synechiæ or detachment of the retina; rarely from suppuration of the corneæ. Although of late years the Russian writers have materially added to our knowledge of the affection, nevertheless in most essentials their observations agree with those above quoted. Thus, Blessig151 gives an account of an epidemic in St. Petersburg, while Logetschnikow152 describes an epidemic in Moscow in which he encountered over 700 cases of this form of ophthalmia. Larionow153 relates the history of a mild epidemic in the Russian army of the Caucasus, and tabulates 767 cases of the fever, in which are also included a number of cases of exanthematic typhus and a few cases of typhoid fever. Exclusive of the ischæmia of the retina and feebleness of the accommodation which were present in every case during convalescence, there were 3 cases of serous retinitis, 2 of hemeralopia, and only 3 of iritis; while in 10 per cent. of these there were vitreous opacities. He did not see a single case of genuine irido-choroiditis in the entire number. Estlander154 has given a masterly description of two epidemics which he observed at Helsingfors in Finland, both of which occurred after a failure of the crops and consequent famine. In the first of these epidemics, which was of a mild type, only 3 out of 222 patients died, and the concomitant eye affections were few in number; while in the latter, 18 out of 242 patients died, and extensive vitreous opacities with severe inflammation of the eyes were frequent. He agrees with Mackenzie that the fever attacks few children under ten years of age, and says that although the disease is much more liable to attack people between twenty and thirty years of age, here it is less frequent than it is in patients between ten and twenty years of age, where it exists in one half of the cases. Arlt155 agrees with this, and says that it is due to the fact that hunger and malnutrition are in general much worse borne by adolescents than by adults. As regards the period of the disease at which the eye symptoms come on, Estlander says that out of 28 carefully observed cases it developed 6 times during the fever or a week after its cessation, 11 times between the second and fourth week, 5 times in the second month, and 6 times from the third to the fifth month. These figures agree well with those given by Mackenzie, and show that there is both a feeble state of constitution and a prolonged convalescence from this severe fever. Pepper,156 in a previous volume of this work, has given an interesting account of an epidemic in this city in which he states that eye affections were of rare occurrence.
149 "An Essay on a Peculiar Inflammatory Disease of the Eye, and its Mode of Treatment," Trans. Med.-Chir. Soc. of London (read Dec. 11, 1827).
150 "Post-febrile Ophthalmitis," Monthly Journ. Med. Sci., 1845, pp. 723-729.
151 Congrès internationale d'Ophthalmologie, Paris, 1868, pp. 114-117.
152 "Entzündung der Vorderen Abschnitten der Choroidea als Nachkrankheit der Febris Recurrens," A. f. O., Bd. xvi., 1, S. 352-363.
153 Klinische Monatsblätter f. Augenheilkunde, 1878, pp. 487-497.
154 A. f. O., xv. 2, pp. 108-143.
155 Klin. Darstellung der Krankheiten des Auges, 1881, pp. 289-291.