Injury of the Eyeball by Birds

Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
by George M. Gould, M.D., Walter L. Pyle, M.D.

(Page 14 of 41)

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.

Gabb mentions a case of epistaxis in which the blood welled up through the lacrimal ducts and suffused into the eye so that it was constantly necessary to wipe the lower eyelid, and the discharge ceased only when the nose stopped bleeding. A brief editorial note on epistaxis through the eyes, referring to a case in the Medical News of November 30, 1895, provoked further reports from numerous correspondents. Among others, the following: -

"Dr. T. L. Wilson of Bellwood, Pa., relates the case of an old lady of seventy-eight whom he found with the blood gushing from the nostrils. After plugging the nares thoroughly with absorbent cotton dusted with tannic acid he was surprised to see the blood ooze out around the eyelids and trickle down the cheeks. This oozing continued for the greater part of an hour, being controlled by applications of ice to both sides of the nose."

"Dr. F. L. Donlon of New York City reports the case of a married woman, about fifty years old, in whom epistaxis set in suddenly at 11 P.M., and had continued for several hours, when the anterior nares were plugged. In a short time the woman complained that she could scarcely see, owing to the welling up of blood in the eyes and trickling down her face. The bleeding only ceased when the posterior nares also were plugged."

"Dr. T. G. Wright of Plainville, Conn., narrates the case of a young man whom he found in the night, bleeding profusely, and having already lost a large amount of blood. Shortly after plugging both anterior and posterior nares the blood found its way through the lacrimal ducts to the eyes and trickled down the cheeks."

"Dr. Charles W. Crumb cites the case of a man, sixty-five years old, with chronic nephritis, in whom a slight bruise of the nose was followed by epistaxis lasting twenty-four hours. When the nares were plugged blood escaped freely from the eyes. A cone-shaped bit of sponge, saturated with ferrous sulphate, was passed into each anterior naris, and another piece of sponge, similarly medicated, into either posterior naris. The patient had been taking various preparations of potassium, and it was thought that his blood contained a deficiency of fibrin. Upon removal of the nasal plugs a catarrhal inflammation developed which lasted a long time and was attended with considerable purulent discharge."