View report page

The Contagious Eye Diseases.—Numerous cases are turned out of school for "blight"
about two-thirds of all cases are simple blepharitis, others chiefly granular lids due to strumous
conditions, and are not of any importance as contagious diseases.
Conjunctivitis.—Acute contagious conjunctivitis "pink eye" is occasionally seen as a limited
outbreak; the disease has been somewhat prevalent in several schools in the East End during this
spring. The Koch-Weekes bacillus was the cause bacteriologically determined. Fortunately,
although it often spreads through a whole household, exclusion of affected cases generally stays its
progress in school, or it may die out rapidly. So far it has caused but little trouble.
Mr. Bishop Harman has paid considerable attention to the bearings of cleanliness and social
conditions on external eye disease. His observations have enabled him to write an important and
original work on "The Conjunctiva in Health and Disease." Blepharitis is most common in
children on entering the infant school, and later again on passing to the senior schools.
In reporting on the condition of the eyelids of over a thousand children at school, Mr. Harman
has made a note of the visible lymph follicles at different ages in boys and girls, and also noted the
prevalence of nits in the girls' heads. He points out that at the age when girls begin to be left to
themselves in the matter of cleanliness there is an aggravation in the condition of the eyelids, due
probably to neglect, as there is also
aggravation in numbers of nits noticed
in the hair (diagram X).
In children with such conditions,
conjunctivitis is not rare, but its results
are passing, and are commonly termed
"blight" by the teachers. Probably it
is best for themselves that such children
should be excluded for a time.
Trachoma, which is said to be so
exceedingly common in New York that
a large staff of inspectors, numbering
more than double our whole staff, is
kept at work for its detection, is one of
the rarest diseases in England. During
several years' charge of a large eye clinic in the North of England, I could have counted the
cases seen on my fingers. Mr. Harman, searching for trachoma, has only found five cases in
70,000 native children.
In the Whitechapel district, trachoma is not such a rarity. It is imported, as practically every
case seen is foreign born. Mr. Hanson has recently given much time and trouble, apart from his
service to the Council, in following up and tracing out trachoma cases in the East End, and the
following account of the disease and its distribution in London is taken from his reports, but is not
final, as he is still studying its dissemination:—
Definition.—Trachoma -may be defined as a disease primarily of the eyelids, characterised
by inflammatory thickening and drooping of the lid, velvety or "granular" condition of the delicat