178 THE NEXT GENERATION 



is such a powerful remedy that it should only be used on 

 a doctor's prescription. 



Warnings from doctors and scientists are producing results ; 

 education is doing its work ; and more care is now taken of the 

 eyes of our babies than ever before since eyes began to suffer. 



In the meantime, while knowledge is spreading, let us not 

 forget that microbes which bring this particular kind of blind- 

 ness do not injure eyesight alone. They destroy eyes for the 

 simple reason that when they get into the tender tissues of 

 the eye, they find themselves in a place where they can mul- 

 tiply fast ; and as they multiply they work their way along, 

 scarring and destroying tissue as they go. 



Fortunately these microbes make no impression whatever on 

 the thick outside skin of the body ; neither do they enter a 

 cracked place in the skin ; neither do they travel in the blood 

 stream here and there. Instead, their one power of doing 

 harm is after they have been lodged on any delicate, moist 

 membrane. There they destroy as fast as they multiply. 



From the starting point they spread from membrane to 

 membrane of the organs of the body, and as they travel we 

 say : " The disease is making headway. The inflammation 

 is spreading." It does indeed make headway, for the advanc- 

 ing hosts scar all the tissues within reach, then move on to 

 other regions for fresh supply. They move as a blight from 

 one tissue to any other which may be directly connected with 

 it, and wherever they go the doctor's remark is, "I find 

 serious inflammation." He speaks of inflammation of the 

 heart, inflammation of the kidneys, inflammation of the joints, 

 inflammation of this part and that, and over and over again 

 the cause is the same — gonococcus microbes have reached 

 the place and are scarring it. 



Dr. Morehead speaks of the " snakiness " of the disease. He 



