EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF OCULAR TUBERCULOSIS

Abstract

In previous communications the general problem of ocular tuberculosis was discussed¹ and experiments were reported² on the interrelation of ocular sensitivity, ocular activity and cutaneous sensitivity in normal rabbits inoculated with tubercle bacilli either systemically or in the eye. In the first paper^2a on experimental work it was pointed out that the undiseased eyes of rabbits systemically infected with tubercle bacilli participated in the general sensitivity to tuberculoprotein, or tuberculin, manifested by the other tissues of the body and that, with minor fluctuations, the ocular and the cutaneous sensitivity were fairly parallel. In the second report^2b it was noted that when the eyes of normal rabbits were infected by the injection of tubercle bacilli, ocular sensitivity to tuberculoprotein became apparent at the end of the second week and was maximal by the third week. The first reaction of the eyes was a slowly progressive tuberculosis with