Snell gives an instance in which a piece of steel was imbedded close to the optic disc with retention of sight. It was plainly visible by the opthalmoscope eighteen months after the accident, when as yet no diminution of sight was apparent. Smyly speaks of a portion of a tobacco pipe which was successfully removed from the anterior chamber by an incision through the cornea. Clark mentions a case in which molten lead in the eye caused no permanent injury; and there are several cases mentioned in confirmation of the statement that the eye seems to be remarkably free from disastrous effects after this injury.
Williamson mentions eyelashes in the anterior chamber of the eye, the result of a stab wound of this organ.
Contusion of the eyeball may cause dislocation of the lens into the anterior chamber, and several instances have been recorded.
We regret our inability to give the reference or authority for a report that we have seen, stating that by one kick of a horse the lenses of both eyes of a man were synchronously knocked through the eyeballs by the calkins of the horseshoe. Oliver mentions extraction of a lens by a thrust of a cow's horn.
Lowe speaks of rupture of the anterior capsule of the lens from violent sneezing, with subsequent absorption of the lenticular substance and restoration of vision. Trioen mentions a curious case of expulsion of the crystalline lens from the eye in ophthalmia, through the formation of a corneal fissure. The authors have personal knowledge of a case of spontaneous extrusion of the lens through a corneal ulcer, in a case of ophthalmia of the new-born.
Injury of the Eyeball by Birds.--There are several instances in which birds have pierced the eyeball with their bills, completely destroying vision. Not long since a prominent taxidermist winged a crane, picked it up, and started to examine it, when it made one thrust with its bill and totally destroyed his eyeball. In another instance a man was going from the railroad station to his hotel in a gale of wind, when, as he turned the corner of the street, an English sparrow was blown into his face. Its bill penetrated his eyeball and completely ruined his sight. There are several instances on record in which game fowls have destroyed the eyes of their owners. In one case a game cock almost completed the enucleation of the eye of his handler by striking him with his gaff while preparing in a cock-pit.
Moorehead explains a rare accident to an eye as follows:--"Mr. S. B. A., while attending to his bees, was stung by one upon the right upper eyelid near its center. An employee, who was assisting in the work, immediately discovered the sting driven in the lid and cautiously extracted it, stating that he made sufficient traction to lift the lid well away from the globe. In a few hours the lid became much swollen, but the pain experienced at first had disappeared. Before retiring for the night he began gentle massage of the lid, stroking it horizontally with his finger. The edematous condition was by this means much reduced in a short time. While thus engaged in stroking the lid he suddenly experienced intense pain in the eye as if it had been pierced by a sharp instrument. The suffering was very severe, and he passed a wretched night, constantly feeling 'something in his eye.'
"The next morning, the trouble continuing, he came to me for relief. Upon examination of the lid, no opening could be made out where the sting had penetrated, and a minute inspection of the conjunctival surface with a good glass failed to reveal any foreign substance. Cleansing the lid thoroughly, and carefully inspecting with a lens under strong light, a minute dark point was made out about the center of the lid. Feeling that this might be the point of the sting, I had recourse to several expedients for its removal, but without success. Finally, with a fine knife, I succeeded in cutting down by the side of the body and tilting it out. Examination with a 1/5 inch objective confirmed my opinion that it was the point of the bee-sting.
"The barbed formation of the point explains how, under the stroking with the finger, it was forced through the dense tarsal cartilage and against the cornea of the eye."There is a story told in La Medecine Moderne of a seamstress of Berlin who was in the habit of allowing her dog to lick her face.
She was attacked with a severe inflammation of the right eye, which had to be enucleated, and was found full of tenia echinococcus, evidently derived from the dog's tongue.