Distichiasis is a preternatural growth of hairs, superadded to the natural order of hairs of the eyelids; and derives its origin from a defluxion, when there happens to be a flow upon the part of a humour which is not pungent or acrid; for that which is more acrid, saltish, or otherwise pungent, when it lodges in these parts, consumes the natural series of hairs. For this state then we sometimes have recourse to the suture of the upper eyelid, and sometimes also for phalangosis when the eyelid inclines inward, the phalanx or row of the hairs being inverted; and sometimes for relaxation of the eyelid, when the natural row of hairs hurts the ball of the eye. Having placed the patient on a seat, either before us or on the left hand, we turn the upper eyelid outwards, and, if it has long hairs, we take hold of them between the index-finger and thumb of the left hand; but if they are very short we push a needle having a thread, through the middle of the tarsus from within outwards; then stretching the eyelid with the left hand by means of his thread, with the point of a scalpel held in the right hand, having folded out the eyelid and everted it, behind the thread we make the under-incision within the hairs which irritate the eye, extending from the larger canthus to the smaller, along the tarsus. After this subsection, having extracted the thread, and putting a small compress under the thumb of the left hand, we stretch the eyebrow upwards. Then arranging other small compresses on the canthi at the extremities, we direct the assistant who stands behind to stretch the eyelid by means of them. Then by means of the scalpel used for sutures we make the first incision, called the veruted (shaped like a verutum or short dart) a little above the hairs, which are in their natural state, extending from canthus to canthus, and penetrating only the depth of the skin; and afterwards we perform the incision called the lunated, beginning at the same place as the former, and carrying it upwards to such a height as to comprehend the whole redundant skin, and ending in like manner as it did. Thus the whole skin comprehended within the incisions will have the shape of a myrtle leaf, of which portion, having perforated the angle on the right hand with a hook (tenaculum), we dissect away the whole skin: then washing away the clots with a sponge, we unite the lips of the incision by three or four sutures, beginning at the middle, and passing the needle itself through the under-section. The thread should be made of wool; and having cut away the superfluity of the thread, not close to the sutures, but so as to leave a superfluity of three fingers’ breadth, we stretch this remainder along the forehead and fasten it by means of any of the agglutinative plasters. But the hairs of the eyelid are to be freed from the sutures with the point of a needle. Such is the common and safe mode of performing this surgical operation. Some avoid the dissection