PART II
THE EYE
INFLAMMATIONS.
Conjunctivitis is rather rare but does occur in all varieties of animals, seldom however, to the extent that the specimen has to be sacrificed. So far as the daily reports can be relied upon we have had no epidemic inflammations of the eye. The parrots and monkeys are the only animals that can be handled enough for treatment, and in them the applications have not seemed very efficacious. Two cases of conjunctivitis and iritis have had a tuberculous basis and two other specimens have had tuberculosis in the eye. Two parrots had, in association with generalized tuberculosis, semisolid masses in the orbit which dislocated the bulb, thickened the lids and presented as yellowish granulating tumors under the conjunctiva; a Swainson’s long-tailed jay (_Calocitta formosa_) had this lesion on both sides. The only case in a mammal concerned an Anubis baboon (_Papio anubis_) in which one eye had been enucleated, two weeks before death, for purulent ophthalmitis. The other eye became affected shortly after the extraction and the animal was killed; it was found to have caseous pneumonia. The tuberculous process had probably begun in the region of the optic nerve and involved the whole bulb. Secondary infection with pyogenic cocci had been superimposed upon the original process. Keratomalacia, encountered on a few occasions, will be discussed by Doctor White.
Iridocyclitis was found in a white browed guan (_Penelope superciliaris_) the notes of which are condensed as follows:
The internal organs show nothing of value pathologically. The right eye shows moderate conjunctivitis and a marked thickening of the cornea with complete opacity. The lens is destroyed and the retina infiltrated by gelatinous material. Humors are watery, non- suppurative, but the fundal portion of the retina shows several poorly circumscribed, yellowish white, gelatinous collections. Microscopical section of cornea shows replacement of normal bundles by wavy ones intermixed with small numbers of nuclei. These are never of inflammatory type, but always of connective tissue type. Conjunctival mucosa defective in centre, puckered but shows no subjacent inflammatory features. Ciliary body richly infiltrated by lymphocytes and vessels distinctly congested. This condition extends over whole anterior surface of iris and for a short distance over posterior. Sclera shows much bone formation. Chronic interstitial keratitis, subacute interstitial iritis and cyclitis.
CATARACT.
Opacities of the cornea are quite common among our specimens, most often due we believe, to local trauma; ungulates exhibit them more than other varieties. Cataractous opacities of the lens are frequently observed in senile animals but, while I have no figures for the statement, I believe they are not as common among our specimens as can be observed in domestic horses and dogs. No record has been made of streaky clouds or spots in the lens but only of complete opacities. There are three only, an aoudad (_Ovis tragelaphus_) a macaw (_Ara macao_) and a summer duck (_Aix sponsa_) the last of which alone is interesting. This bird, a fully developed adult female, was killed because of total blindness and found to have a low grade chronic pancreatitis and a bilateral Morgagnian cataract, the lens capsule containing a thin cloudy fluid with the nucleus quite freely movable in it.
AMBLYOPIA.
A very interesting case of amblyopia in a young monkey was studied and reported by Dr. H. M. Langdon and Doctor Cadwalader in the _Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics_, Vol. XXVIII,