The cause is salty matter from the pungent blood, having the properties of meadowsweet, which first causes scabies and then gives rise to trachoma. It often forms after eye ulcers. The disease begins with a slight itching, then a roughness appears and the eyelids turn red, then a dry ulceration occurs, followed by a kind of hard granular formation.
Treatment. If trachoma is associated with inflammation of the eye, then treat the inflammation first, not leaving trachoma unattended, and then tackle the trachoma. Similar measures and judgments occur when there is another disease besides trachoma, so one must vigilantly monitor the more severe disease. If you see ulcers and swelling, then beware of using sharp medicines and the like, unless you are firmly convinced of the possibility of careful scraping; otherwise, by using such drugs, you would cause great suffering. With the second and third types mentioned earlier, scraping is necessary either with iron or with abrasive agents such as sea foam, especially the kind called pumice, or fig leaves. Or prepare an ointment from bloodstone, saffron and marcasite and wash it off with it.
However, in the case of a type that can be treated with medication - and this is one that does not reach the second and third degrees - the initial treatment consists of repeated evacuation and bloodletting, at least twice a month, bloodletting from the inner corners of the eye after regular bloodletting, repeated bathing, in avoiding dust, smoke and shouting, in avoiding tying the collar too tightly or a narrow neckline on the shirt, as well as rage, anger, long conversations, a flat pillow, prolonged prostration during prayer and everything that causes bad juices to rise up and reach for your face.
At the beginning of the disease, red soft ointment is useful, and after it green soft ointment. If the disease has intensified, then take the acute types of these ointments, tarahumatikun, the medicine Erasistrata and saffron ointment. Sometimes they treat with goat and pig bile, ammonia, burnt copper, kalkadis - together or separately. Basilikun ointment and ash ointment are also good; The medicine Erasistrata is also good. Useful remedies also include the following: amber - one part, copper scale - two parts, they are kneaded with honey and consumed. They also take burnt copper - sixteen mithqals, and pepper - eight mithqals, kalimiyya - four mithqals, myrrh - two mithqals, saffron - two mithqals, verdigris - five mithqals, gum - twenty mithqals; they are crushed, mixed with rainwater, as you already know.