COLOURING THE EYE-BALL.

To the Editor of "The Indian Medical Gazette."

Sill,?I should be much obliged if you will kindly insert in your Journal the following preliminary note on anew method of colouring the eye-ball in cases of corneal opacity where 110 sight can be restored. This is done by separating the conjunctiva all round at the corneo-scleral junction, undermining it and then stitching the margins in front of the cornea so as to completely cover it. An artificial

pterygium covering the whole of the front of the eye-ball is thus formed, lamp black obtained by burning a castor oil lamp and collecting the deposit called "Kajal" in Urdu is then tattooed into the conjunctiva, or an emulsion of lamp black injected subconjunctival^ or placed over the opacity first and the conjunctiva stitched. This method is

specially useful in cases where the cornea has sloughed off and the opacity is on the iris as in anterior staphyloma after prolapse of the iris. No wound is made in the eye-ball itself, hence there is

no danger of infection to this eje or of sympathetic ophthalmia- If a repetition is ever necessary, it can easily be done without the patient remaining in hospital or having any after-treatment. The colour is much more

evenly distributed than in ordinary tattooing of the cornea. After a time leucocytes carry the pigment deeply into the conjunctival and subconjunctival tissues and infiltrate them with it. The conjunctiva is a translucent structure and the pigment shines through it just as clearly as the white of the sclerotic is seen through it.

In cases of large anterior staphylomata, the staphyloma may be excised by de Wecker's method as described by Colonel Maynard in his Manual *of Ophthalmic Operations, or after the staphyloma has been excised the cut margin of the sclerotic may be brought together and stitched up with

catgut and the conjunctiva can then be stitched in front of it. I do not think that stitching the sclerotic increases the danger of sympathetic ophthalmia. The sclerotic will give better protection to the uveal trac*

than either the cornea or the staphyloma which is after all only exposed iris with a white scar on it, hence subsequent danger of sympathetic ophthalmia in the sound eyeis less. The colour deepens as time goes on, the conjunctiva gets more and more adherent, the redness passes off, and the transparency of conjunctiva is again restored. Pigmentation lasts much longer than it does after tattooing the cornea-

Yours, etc.,

HARI SHANKAR, L.M.S.,

Asst. SurtjnEye Dept., Civil Hospital, Delhi, India.