CHAPTER XXIV 



PREVENTION OF BLINDNESS 



The doctor knew that certain microbes had entered his 

 right eye, that they were multiplying there with astonishing 

 rapidity, and that but one thing in the world could save his 

 sight. He was on the night boat going from Boston to New 

 York and had none of the needed medicine with him. Neither 

 was there any of it on board, and the boat was too far from 

 port to put back to Boston for it. 



The results were inevitable. When they reached New York 

 the next day all hope of saving the eye was gone. The other 

 eye had to do double duty for the man ever afterwards. 



The doctor knew perfectly well that this was a definite effect 

 from a definite cause. He could point to the place and to the 

 hour of the day when he had cared for a newborn baby. He 

 knew he had used medicine on the baby's eyes, because they 

 were threatened by microbes that bring blindness. But he did 

 not know how other microbes of the same kind, in the same 

 room, could have entered his own eyes. 



Usually it is the babies and ignorant people who suffer, not 

 the doctors. 



Dr. Howard reports the case of a woman whose eyesight 

 he tried to save. She worked in a hotel, was vigorous and 

 healthy, with perfect eyesight, and she had a daughter five 

 years old. In this hotel the woman handled towels, linen, 

 sheets, and all such things as are used by others soiled 

 articles on which disease microbes are often left. 



173 



