How Eye Diseases are Spread.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 192, 19 February 1887, Page 3

How Eye Diseases are Spread.

To mention a few of the modes of contagion I have to speak, in the first place, of towels, especially of that abominable institution known as the roller-towel, which has been used so much in asylums where forty, fifty or more children use the same towel, whether they have granular lids or not. True, in a great many of these cases the existence of granular lids in not known : but even in cases in which the existence of the disease was evident the ignorance or carelessness of the person in charge has allowed transmission by means of towels to be one of the most frequent sources of coutagion. As a carrier of the contagion the hou?e-fly plays an important rdle, especially in the cases of young children who are not able to protect themselveß against the visits of this* little animal. Attracted by the sweetish odour of the discharge it will settle upon the eyes of children affected with the disease, especially infants, and carry the contagion in its clawß to the other eye or the eyes of sleeping infants. Spectacles may be the carrier of the contagion. I remember the case of a young lady who cojild not explain satisfactorily how ehe came to have granular lids. Upon her return to echool she mentioned that ehe had granular lids, whereupon one of her classmates said : " Why, that is the disease which I have been Buffering from for the last six monthß." This classmate was

nearsighted and used glasses. My patien wds also near-sighted, but had not used glidseVand "whenever sh"e Wanted td'-'feae anything. at a distance she, was in the, habit) of 'borrowing the spectacles of her friend, and there is no doubt in my mind that 1 thisws|B the raean^ of- carry irtgihe poison from $he ojajieraatct's eye.,fco ( my ) p&j;ient'?,eye., , Children with granular lids are very apt to rub the 1 eyes, because the" sedrotion as it begins to dry on the edge of the lids, causes abirritating, itc^iag.eeDsation. ...They, wtyl, now play with? other child rep, a,nd from their, hands transfer the poison, to tfye han^s of f;he, other, ohjldsen, and thesje latter, rub-, bing, their , eyes contrapt , the , disease. Handing object? which have, been used by granular lids patients may be the means of carrying the contagion. A young lady, who volunteered to teach children affected .with granular lide, and who had been, isolated from other chU<ir.en in a, cer tain, institution, , was warned- to be, extremely careful .with regard to using handkerchiefs,, tiow^lg fi or anything which, belonged to the children. She was well aware of the danger, - and promised to be very careful. She handled nothing whatever, she said, that -belonged, to the children, left her, cloaks, outside, and in the claes-room kept away from" the qhildren a, distance of fiYe,or six fees. } But upon examination of her eyes., fourteen days after she had taken office, it was found, that she began to suffer from granular Hde, Upon inquiry, I found that she had been taking the copy-bo"ks and slates of .the children for correction, and in all probability she got, (he pofaon from the slate and books on her hands and then conveyed it to her eyes. A teacher of another eection in the same institution was morn careful ; she simply walked into the class-room, did not touch anything belonging to the children, and for "two or three, months, during the duration of this epidemic, she was not affected by the disease The atmosphere liad evidently n^t been the carrier of the contagion in the first case.— "Medical and Surgical Reporter." ,