DROOPING EYELIDS, OR PTOSIS.--This is usually present in the upper lid, or is at least little noticed in the lower. It is sometimes but a symptom of paralysis of one-half of the face, in which case the ear, lips, and nostrils on the same side will be found soft, drooping, and inactive, and even the half of the tongue may partake of the palsy. If the same condition exists on both sides, there is difficult, snuffling breathing, from the air drawing in the flaps of the nostrils in inspiration, and all feed is taken in by the teeth, as the lips are useless. In both there is a free discharge of saliva from the mouth during mastication. This paralysis is a frequent result of injury, by a poke, to the seventh nerve, as it passes over the back of the lower jaw. In some cases the paralysis is confined to the lid, the injury having been sustained by the muscles which raise it, or by the supraorbital nerve, which emerges from the bone just above the eye. Such injury to the nerve may have resulted from fracture of the orbital process of the frontal bone above the eyeball. The condition may, however, be due to spasm of the sphincter muscle, which closes the lids, or to inflammation of the upper lid, usually a result of blows on the orbit. In the latter case it may run a slow course with chronic thickening of the lid. The paralysis due to the poke may be often remedied, first, by the removal of any remaining inflammation by a wet sponge worn beneath the ear and kept in place by a bandage; secondly, when all inflammation has passed, by a blister on the same region, or by rubbing it daily with a mixture of olive oil and strong aqua ammonia in equal proportions. Improvement is usually slow, and it may be months before complete recovery ensues. In paralysis from blows above the eyes the same treatment may be applied to that part. Thickening of the lid may be treated by painting with tincture of iodin, and that failing, by cutting out an elliptical strip of the skin from the middle of the upper lid and stitching the edges together. INFLAMMATION OF THE EYELIDS. The eyelids suffer more or less in all severe inflammations of the eye, whether external or internal, but inasmuch as the disease sometimes starts in the lids and at other times is exclusively confined to them, it deserves independent mention.