Tes iatrikes kartos, or, A treatise de morborum capitis essentiis & pronosticis adorned with above three hundred choice and rare observations ... / by Robert Bayfield ...

CAP. LXXVIII. De Humoris Crystallini vitiis.

HUmor Crystallinus, The Crystalline hu∣mor is the chief instrument of sight, and therefore ought to be kept more pure and per∣spicuous than the rest; those things that are a∣miss in this humor, are especally three.

First, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or the changing of the Cry∣stalline humor into a grey, or sky-colour, arising from exsiccation, which causeth the Patient to apprehend all objects as through smoke and lit∣tle clouds.

Secondly, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, seu caecitas nocturna, or a nocturnal blindness; with the which such as are affected see indifferently well in the day∣time, but more obscurely and dimly after sun∣set, and in the night time nothing at all.

Thirdly, Situs mutatus, or the scituation chan∣ged, qui multipliciter accidere solet.

Moreover, although many Authors do not di∣stinguish between a Glaucoma, and a Suffusion, yet they which diligently observe may distinguish them thus: In a Suffusion there is a white in the very Pupilla, and very neer the Membrane cal∣led Cornea; but in Glaucoma it lieth deeper.

Incurabilis est hic affectus, praecipuè in senibus, in quibus siccitas partium emendari non potest; but if it be not manifest that the fault is in the Crystalline, and there is suspition of a Suffusi∣on, you may use the Remedies prescribed for it.

I read of a certain Physician, who going up a Ladder to take a Book from a shelf, and turning his eyes violently upwards, saw all things after∣wards turned upwards, as though men walked up∣on their heads, which came by the attraction and displacing of the Crystalline. For a quarter of a year after, when again he turned up his eyes vio∣lently, his natural sight returned, and all things ap∣peared in right order. Hence it appears that by a violent motion of the eye, the Crystalline may be displaced, & again by the same motion be set right.

The juyce of Chickweed, or Fennel, dropped

into the eye, is very much commended in the cure of Nyctalopia, as also to receive the va∣pour of Rue, Fennel, Eye-bright, Celandine, Ligni-Aloes, and Saffron, sodden together in Wine or water, or else to distill them with Ho∣ney, and so put the water into the eyes.