United States or Togo ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Rode out of an evening; there was a large encampment of Arabs outside the town, thoroughly sun-burnt, hardy-looking fellows, some of them as black as negroes. Many people in Toser have sore eyes, and several with the loss of one eye, or nearly so; opthalmia, indeed, is the most prevalent disease in all Barbary.
With a cargo of 165 slaves, she was on the way to Guadaloupe in 1819, when opthalmia a virulent disease of the eyes appeared among the blacks. It spread rapidly, though the captain, in hopes of checking its ravages, threw thirty-six negroes into the sea alive. Finally it attacked the crew, and in a short time all save one man became totally blind.
If the disease progresses in its course, unchecked by any remediate means, the cornea may lose its vitality, ulceration commence, and the sight be for ever destroyed by the bursting and discharge of the contents of the eye. 'Causes. Simple canine opthalmia proceeds from many causes, distinct in their character, but all requiring pretty much the same treatment.
It was necessary to put the nurse on her guard as to the risks we were running. We should have had concave glasses to protect our eyes, and we spent part of our time washing our hands in bichloride solution. "Mrs. Abbott, what is it?" whispered the woman. "It has a long name," I replied "opthalmia neonatorum." "And what has caused it?" "The original cause," I responded, "is a man."
It is thus also that, though transcending all diseases, the Soul regards himself to be afflicted by headache and opthalmia and toothache and affections of the throat and abdominal dropsy, and burning thirst, and enlargement of glands, and cholera, and vitiligo, and leprosy, and burns, and asthma and phthisis, and epilepsy, and whatever other diseases of diverse kinds are seen in the bodies of embodied creatures.
The presence of the larvæ produces very painful and troublesome sores. It has also been suggested that they might reach the subcutaneous tissue by migrating from the alimentary canal as do some of the other bot-flies. A very serious eye disease, Egyptian opthalmia, is known to be spread by the house-flies and others.
But she is not entirely deserted, for a faint shout comes across the narrowing strip of sea and is answered from the "Rodeur." The two vessels draw near. There can be no launching of boats by blind men, but the story of the stranger is soon told. She, too, is a slaver, a Spaniard, the "Leon," and on her, too, every soul is blind from opthalmia originating among the slaves.
Worse even than opthalmia neonatorum was plain speaking to a guest! "Mrs. Abbott, you humiliate me!" Then I spoke harshly, seeing that I would actually have to shock her. "I assure you, Mrs. Tuis, that if you don't feel that way about me, it's simply because you don't know the truth. It is not possible that you would consider me a proper person to visit Sylvia.
Word Of The Day