Library Collections: Document: Full Text

*The Ladies' Home Journal, January, 1907.

We all know that a large number of people become blind every year. But it is not generally, known that many human eyes are needlessly lost which, if right corrective and preventive measures were employed, would be saved to the service of the world. And what we should know, in particular, is that much of this blindness can be prevented by the mothers themselves.

We live in an epoch of reform. I read that men and women are valiantly contending against the greed and neglect that condemn thousands of children to dwarf their minds and bodies in labour; I hear that we are striving to protect ourselves against impure food and dangerous "patent medicines." But of all ignorance which needs to be dispelled by the spirit of regeneration among us, none is more intolerable than that which wantonly permits children to be plunged into the abyss of blindness.

Two fifths of all blindness could have been prevented by precautionary or curative treatment. Of this, one quarter, or one tenth of the whole, is due to what is called "ophthalmia neonatorum" -- that is, "infantile ophthalmia."

"What is ophthalmia neonatorum?" It is an inflammation of the eyes which attacks the new-born child and is one of the most prolific causes of blindness. It is occasioned by germs finding an entrance in the eyes of the child during the process of birth. In from twenty- four to sixty hours after the birth of the child whose eyes have been infected the eyes grow red and a watery secretion comes from the lids. This soon grows thicker and more profuse until a creamy discharge pours out from the eyes. The lids become swollen, hard and red. If this condition is allowed to continue, the eyeballs become ulcerated until finally they rupture and the child in many cases becomes blind.

All this can be prevented. If, at the time of birth, the baby's eyelids are gently wiped dry with a little absorbent cotton and the lids held open while the eyes are flushed with a saline solution -- as warm and as salt as normal tears -- the malignant germs may be washed away and the danger averted.

But as it is not always possible for those with untrained hands to accomplish this skilfully and thoroughly, and as under any circumstances we cannot be certain that all of the virulent microscopic germs are removed, it is necessary as a further step that one or two drops of a solution of nitrate of silver of a determined strength be dropped in each eye of the new-born child. Should a strong solution be used, as it may be by the physician, it should be immediately neutralized by a few drops of slightly salted boiled water; with a weaker solution this neutralization is not necessary. This silver preparation destroys the germs without injuring the eyes and its use practically eliminates this frightful disease as a cause of blindness.

As it is never possible to know in which baby's eyes the germs have found lodgment, and as the use of the silver is safe and sure, the preventive solution should be invariably employed at every birth. To delay or omit it is to invite unnecessary danger.

It happens, however, in a few cases, even where silver nitrate is used, that some of the microbes escape destruction and remain to threaten the sight. This does not mean that all is lost, that the child's chances are gone. The same remedy judiciously applied at a sufficiently early period in the progress of the disease and under competent medical advice will destroy the germs and thereby control the inflammation and still prevent blindness.

Since the value and importance of this measure is universally conceded, and its employment commended by the medical profession, it would seem remarkable that it does not form a part of the toilet of every new-- born child, and the inquiry is naturally suggested: why is it not always employed in the eyes of the new-born? How can it ever happen that so simple a preventive measure can be omitted, when its neglect leads to such disastrous consequences? In almost all the large hospitals and in the practice of nearly every careful scientific physician it is, indeed, a routine measure, but ignorance, indifference, and negligence are still abroad in the land, and until those shall be aroused who feel a moral responsibility in defending the rights of the helpless infant thus cruelly assailed, babies will be blinded and lives will be blighted, world without end.

There would seem to be three reasons why every physician (and every midwife who takes the physician's responsibilities at a birth) does not invariably employ a silver solution in the eyes of every new-born child: first, many who have to deal with the expectant mother are not acquainted with the character of this germ disease and have not yet learned the importance and necessity of preventive measures; others hesitate to employ this valuable specific from a wrong impression that it may harm the tender eye of the infant child; but the neglect in far the greater number of cases is due to the fact that the silver solution does not happen to be present at the moment at which it is needed, and as the" majority of children escape infection, the chance is taken that each child may be one of the fortunate. The propitious moment at which the silver nitrate might be effectively employed is allowed to pass, and when next the opportunity comes it may be too late.