Abstract
In the 1820s medical practitioners, bound by practices consistent with depletive therapies of the antiphlogistic paradigm, favoured bleeding, blistering, and purging to treat inflammatory complaints of the eye. Advances in therapeutics during the 1830s and 40s led to a digression from these depletive therapies to the specific remedy of applying nitrate of silver directly onto the mucosa of the eye. This paper uses comparative analysis of hospital records of convict patients in Bermuda, Fremantle, and New Norfolk Hospital in Van Diemen's Land to illustrate this change in theory and resultant clinical transition in treating ophthalmic complaints. The analysis illustrates how advances in the use of specific remedies for ophthalmic diseases led to trials of silver nitrate (among free patients) to alleviate inflammation in other areas of the body.
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