Kitap 7
7
Again, at the angle next to the nostrils, there opens a sort of small fistula, due to some lesion, through which rheum persistently drips; the Greeks call it aigilops. This causes a persistent eye trouble; sometimes it even eats away the bone, and penetrates to the nostril. And at time it has the character of a carcinoma when the veins become distended and look jaundiced, the skin livid, hard and irritable to the slightest touch, and it gives rise to inflammation in the parts near to it. Of these affections it is dangerous to treat those which resemble carcinoma, for that even hastens death. Again, it is useless to treat those which penetrate to the nostrils for they never heal. But when limited to the angle, treatment is possible so long as we do not forget that it is difficult. The nearer the opening to the angle, the greater the deficiency, on account of the very narrow space for handling the lesion. When the trouble is fresh, however, cure is easier. Now the margin of the opening is to be caught up by a hook, then as I have described for fistula in general the whole channel down to the bone is to be excised; and the eye and adjacent parts having been well covered over, the bone is to be cauterized; and more thoroughly when there is already decay, in order that a thicker scale may separate. Some apply caustics, such as cobbler's blacking or bronze or copper filings, which act more slowly, and do not have the same effect. After cauterization of the bone, the same treatment is followed as in other burns.
