As the discharge from ulcerated eyes is very infectious, care should be
taken not to communicate it to other persons' eyes. Strict cleanliness
should be observed, and all rags employed should be burnt, and
disinfectants used to cleanse the patient's and nurse's hands, etc.
Towels should be boiled for half-an-hour before being washed, after
they have been used in such a case.
Now a most important matter must be attended to. Castor oil is the most
soothing that can be used with the eyes. Fresh olive oil comes next,
but it is usually just as easy to get the one as the other. With a
feather, or fine camel's-hair brush, and as gently as possible, cover
the eyelids with this oil heated to about blood heat. Do not try to
force it on the eyeballs, but if the lids open so much as to let it in,
allow it to lubricate the eyeball also. Rub it gently over the eyebrows
and all round the eyes, and dry it gently off. Cover the eyes then with
a soft covering, and let them have perfect rest.
It sometimes happens that a tiny piece of dust or iron may stick in the
surface of the eye, and refuse to be washed away by the tears. Take a
square inch of writing paper, curve one of the sides of it, and draw it
lightly and quickly over the spot. Never use any sharp instrument or
pin. Repeat the operation a few times if unsuccessful.
Diet as recommended in article Eyes, Hazy Sight.
Eyes, Failing Sight.--This often comes as the result simply of an
over-wearied body and mind, without any pain or accident whatever. It
appears as an inability to see small distant objects, or to see at all
in dusky twilight. The sight is also variable--good when the patient is
not wearied, and bad when he is tired. When this comes on under thirty
years of age, the eyes have almost certainly been overworked, and need
rest. Rest from all reading and other work trying for the eyes is the
best cure. If this can be had, it should be taken, with much outdoor
exercise. Fresh air is a fine tonic for the eyes. Where total rest
cannot be had, take as much as possible, and nurse the failing nerves
as follows. Apply the bran poultice, as directed for inflamed eyes,
just as long as it is felt to be comforting--with one patient it will
be longer, with another shorter. Now there is a cooling of the brow and
of the eyes themselves, which is as important almost as the heating of
the back of the head. We always find, as a matter of fact, that a cold
application opposed to a hot one produces a vastly better result that
two hot ones opposed, or one hot one by itself alone. So we find in the
case of the eyes. We have now, as we write these lines, eyes under our
care that are mending every day by means of a bran poultice at the back
of the head and neck, and a cold cloth changed on the brow and eyes.
They do not mend anything like so well if heat alone is used. Rub the
back of the head and neck with hot olive oil before and after
poulticing, and dry well. Do this for an hour at a time, _twice_, or if
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