Specific Inflammation of Cornea in Chickenpox

INFLAMMATION of the iris leaves behind recognisable changes in the tissues. These results-the remains of posterior synechiae, and lucidity of the iris resulting from patchy atrophy of the pigmentepithelium-are not characteristic. But the resolving of an inflammation of the iris is in certain cases associated with very significant sequelae, especially in the case of so-called vitiligo iridis. (1) Leopold Muller, fifty years ago, described circumscribed depigmented spots in the iris, which he believed to be produced by a foetal inflammation. The three cases described had all suffered from smallpox. Fuchs had already stressed in his well-known text-book the relation between smallpox and these spots in the iris. I have illustrations of three cases of vitiligo iridis-two in dark-pigmented irides and one in a blue iris-all subsequent to smallpox in childhood. Alajmo and Arguello have communicated parallel cases. The spots are greyish-white, sharply-defined, predominiantly situated in the ciliary part of the iris, in groups, but distinct from each other-especially striking in dark irides, but more difficult to distinguish in grey or blue irides. (Figs. 1, 2).