Note 77 — 1. OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.
Reading edition
Such as “Women’s breasts being sore; a Pin and Web in the Eye; Uncombes of Hands; Burns; Scaldings; sore Mouths; the Stone; Strangury; Saucelim; and Morphew, and such other like diseases.”
The pin and web in the eye is alluded to by Shakespeare in Lear, Act iii. Sc. iv. “he gives the web and the pin,” and again, “wishing all eyes blind with the pin and web,” Winter’s Tale, Act. i. Sc. ii. With respect to the precise meaning of this expression some doubts have arisen. Hanmer says the pin is a horny induration of the membranes of the eye. Skinner seems likewise to say the same, but Dr. Johnson thinks that it is an inflammation, which causes a pain like that of a pointed body piercing the eye: Web in the eye, is defined by Johnson “a kind of dusky film that hinders the sight.” Uncombes of Hands is an expression still used in the North for Whitlows. Morphew signifies a cutaneous eruption in the face, Saucclim?