r this disease. It causes a great many cases of
blindness and generally the cases are neglected too long. Treatment must
begin before the disease begins. Immediately at the birth of the child,
when if there is any poison in the eye due to a discharge in the mother's
vagina, it can be immediately cleansed.

TREATMENT PREVENTIVE. What to do first.--As soon as the child is born and
before its eyes are opened the discharges should be carefully wiped away
from the lids with small squares of cotton or gauze, pieces wrung out of a
weak solution, three per cent (three parts to one hundred of warm, boiled,
water) of boric acid. The eyes should not be exposed to the light. At the
first both the eyes should be bathed and the same piece of linen should
not be used for both eyes.

As soon as any redness appears the eye should be frequently bathed with
this warm, weak solution of boric acid and sometimes cold compresses
should be used by taking squares of folded gauze or masses of absorbent
cotton. Take them cold from a block of ice and lay them over the eyes, and
keep constantly changing to keep them cold. This relieves the congestion
and prevents a great amount of blood from flowing and settling
(congestion) there. When pus appears in the eye it should be cleansed
every half hour at least. You can do this by letting the solution run over
it from a medicine dropper. After being allowed to trickle from the outer
to the inner angle (corner) of the eye, it will then run down beside the
nose and can be caught in a piece of absorbent cotton or sponge. If there
is a great amount of pus in the eye, the eye may have to be washed out in
this manner, every fifteen minutes, day and night, so that the cornea will
be kept clean. If this must be done a small fountain syringe with a glass
tube (eye-dropper) attached will cause a steady flow of the solution. The
boric acid can be increased to five or ten grains to the ounce of water.
If only one eye is diseased the other eye may be covered.

[EYE AND EAR 351]

All cloths, etc., should be burned at once and the basin which has held
them, filled with carbolic acid solution of the strength of one part acid
to twenty parts water. The nurse's hands should be thoroughly scrubbed in
hot water and soap and disinfected in the same strength of carbolic acid
solution, as the disease is very contagious and dangerous to adults. An
attendant should not touch her face or hair with her hands unless they
have b