and mines more serious damage is done by larger bits of metal or stone.
Sometimes harm is done in an attempt to remove the foreign body from
the eye, as the hands of the one performing this service may not be
clean, or the instrument used may be the corner of a soiled
handkerchief, a toothpick or match, or even, as sometimes happens, the
tongue. More eyes are injured from infection than from the presence of
foreign bodies, which, if properly and carefully removed, might result
only in temporary inconvenience and the loss of a few days work. Workmen
should not trust to the shop or factory doctor, but should go to the
company doctor at once. Immediate and competent care should be secured
without delay, and this will save eyes, and also save employers and
insurance companies a great deal of money.

Lime-burn, solder-burn, and all the so-called dusty trades produce
chronic inflammation of the eyes, which often results in total
blindness. The National Council of Safety enumerates fifty-five
industrial poisons, thirty-six of which affect the eyes. Absorption of
drugs often causes blindness--tobacco, wood alcohol, lead, used in so
many industries; bisulphide of carbon, used in making rubber;
nitro-benzol, used in the manufacture of explosives, and some of the
anilin dyes. Hoods and exhausts should be used to prevent the escape of
dangerous fumes, vapors and gases. For men exposed to great heat,
antisweat pencils have been manufactured, and when these are rubbed over
the goggles, the glass will remain clear of steam for hours. Special eye
coverings are designed for men working over acids, or in sand blasting.
One of our pupils, a man past fifty, who had worked in a creamery for
over twenty years, and who usually wore goggles when making tests with
sulphuric acid, neglected to take the precautionary measure one morning,
and some of the acid splashed up into his eyes. He is totally blind, and
must begin life all over again. There have been so many cases of
blindness as a result of dynamite explosions occurring in quarries and
mines, that laws have been enacted for the protection of workmen. When a
blast has been fired, and it is not certain that all the charges have
exploded, no person is permitted to enter the place until forty-five
minutes after the explosion. My records prove the great need for this
precautionary measure, and I only wish it had been enforced years ago,
before so many men in the prime of life had been deprived