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EYE.

All kinds of excess are likewise hurtful to the sight, particularlythe immoderate use of ardent spirits, and other strong liquors.

In all diseases of the eyes, especially those attended with in-flammation, the cold regimen ought to be observed. The patientmust abstain from all spirituous liquors. The smoke of tobacco,smoky rooms, the vapours of onions and garlic, and all vivid lightsand glaring colours, are carefully to be avoided. The drink maybe water, whey, or small beer ; and the aliment must be light andof easy digestion.

For preventing disorders of the eyes, issues and setons are ofprime use. Every person, whose eyes are tender, ought to haveone or more of these in some part of the body. It will likewisebe of use to keep the body gently open, and either to bleed or purgeevery spring and fall. All excess and night-studies are to be avoid-ed. Such as do not choose a seton or an issue, will reap benefitfrom wearing a small Burgundy-pitch plaster between their shoul-ders.

Gutta serena, or Amaurosis, is an abolition of the sight, with-out any apparent cause or fault in the eyes. When it is owing toa decay or wasting of the optic nerve, it does not admit of a cure ;but when it proceeds from a compression of the nerves, by redun-dant humours, these may in some measure be drained off, and thepatient relieved. For this purpose, the body must be kept openwith the laxative mercurial pills. If the patient be young, and ofa sanguine habit, he may be bled. Cupping, with scarifications onthe back part of the head, will likewise be of use. A running atthe nose may be promoted by volatile salts, stimulating powders,&c. But the most likely means for relieving the patient are issuesor blisters kept open for a long time on the hack part of the head,behind the ears, or on the neck. I have known these restore sight,even after it had been for a considerable time lost.

Should these fail, recourse must be had to a mercurial saliva-tion ; or, what will perhaps answer the purpose better, twelvegrains of the corrosive sublimate of mercury may be dissolved inan English pint and a half of brandy, and a table-spoonful of ittaken twice a-day, drinking half a pint of the decoction of sarsa-parilla after it.

A Cataract is an obstruction of the pupil, by the interpositionof some opaque substance which either diminishes or totally extin-guishes the sight. It is generally an opacity of the crystalline hu-mour. In a recent or beginning cataract, the same medicines areto be used as in the gutta serena ; and they will sometimes succeed.But when this does not happen, and the cataract becomes firm, itmust be couched, or rather extracted. I have resolved a recentcataract by giving the patient frequent purges with calomel, keep-ing a poultice of fresh hemlock constantly upon the eye, and aperpetual blister on the neck.*

Myopia, or sJiort-jightedness ; and the Presbyopia, or seeing onlyat too great a distance, are disorders which depend on the original

* In both theee cases electricity merits a trial.