Diseases of the lymphoid tissue of the conjunctiva / by E. Treacher Collins.

  • Collins, E. Treacher (Edward Treacher), 1862-1937.
Date:
[1910]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Diseases of the lymphoid tissue of the conjunctiva / by E. Treacher Collins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    been largely employed for trachoma with variable results. The method of application has been, first to keep the upper eyelid everted with a clamp holding the eyelashes and stuck with a strip of plaster to the forehead. This avoids exposure of the operator's fingers in any way to the rays. The patient is then seated a foot distant from the kathode of the Crooks tube and a five minutes' exposure is made with a current of 10 volts. These exposures are repeated each day for 10 days, and are then stopped for 10 days ; if at the end of that time little or no reaction has been set up, application for another 10 days is made. Some cases treated in this way have steadily improved, follicles disappearing and pannus, when present, clearing up. Some, on the other hand, after very prolonged use of the rays, have shown but little amelioration. In no case have any disagreeable consequences been occasioned from the employ- ment of X-rays in the cautious way above described. The varying results are, doubtless, to a great extent, attributable to varying degrees of dosage according to the hardness or softness of the tube employed. It would be very advan- tageous if some method for regulating the dosage in the X-ray treatment of trachoma could be introduced similar to the use of the Sabourand and Noire pastilles in the treatment of ringworm by X-rays. In 1904 I tried treating cases of trachoma with radium. A 5-milligramme glass tube of radium bromide of low radio- activity was held over the everted eyelids for five to seven minutes daily. This was continued for from 3 to 10 weeks before any definite reaction ensued. The results were not very encouraging. Probably with the improved apparatus for the application of radium introduced by Drs. Wickham and I)egais, and longer exposures, more satisfactory effects might be obtained. Success in the treatment of trachoma by radium has been reported by Cohn,* Thieleman.f and SelenkowSky.J * Berliner Klin. Wochenschr., No. 1, 1905. t Zeitsclir. f. Augenb., December, 1905. X Arch. f. Augenh., Bd. lx, 1908, II. 1, s. 63. C