sed no
prophylactic, so the questions on the certificate insure the use of the
nitrate of silver solution in nine cases out of ten, though its use at
birth is not made compulsory. Dr Glaser reports that the birth
certificates in fourteen of the largest cities of the state, for the
year 1917, show that on eighty-seven per cent of the certificates filed,
the questions had been answered, and the prophylactic used. In Berkeley,
every one of the birth certificates filed in 1917 reported the use of a
prophylactic. The State Board of Health insists on the reporting of all
communicable diseases, and infant ophthalmia is considered one of these,
and in this connection, Dr Glaser says, "a case reported is a case
safeguarded, a physician aided, and a community protected." But it is
necessary to urge a ceaseless warfare against this most prolific cause
of infantile blindness, and social and civic organizations, churches,
schools, and all individuals who deplore needless suffering, are asked
to give the subject the widest publicity. Physicians are only now
beginning to realize that, in all phases of preventive medicine, their
strongest, most necessary, and, indeed, essential ally, is the public,
and the needed stimulus to a better medical performance is an
intelligent knowledge on the part of the people as to what should be
done.

It is a common belief that ophthalmia neonatorum is an indication that
one or both of the infant's parents have led unclean lives, and so,
until recently, it has been difficult to have all such cases reported.
While ophthalmia neonatorum _is_ often the result of the social evil,
the introduction of other pus-producing germs into the eyes at birth is
responsible for a large number of cases. So it should be remembered that
babies' sore eyes is not a disgrace (any baby may have the disease), but
blindness from babies' sore eyes _is_ a disgrace, for, in almost every
case, it can be prevented.

Dr Park Lewis says: "And when we think of the long life of darkness of
the blind, the limited possibilities of the child to be educated, the
narrow lines in which he may hope to be trained, the fields of
usefulness from which he will be cut off by his blindness, his
dependence on others for things he should otherwise do for himself, the
financial loss to the community for his maintenance when he might, under
happier conditions, not only have been self-supporting, but possibly
independent--the pity of it all comes with