View report page

184
1911]
The London figures are supported by those of Germany, Austria, Denmark,
and Holland, which Rhein-Hardt debited with 40 per cent.; with those of Paris,
to which Claisse debited 46 per cent., to those of Breslau, to which an
Investigator gave 34 per cent., and to Berlin, to which Katz attributed 41 as
blind from this cause.
Dr. Harmer made very close inquiries in one London district, half the
population of which live in tenements and half in houses rented from £30 to
£40 per annum. There are, however, only a few at the latter rental. He
visited the local practitioners and obtained from them particulars of some
15,000 live births, and discovered that among these infants the incidence of
the disease averaged 0.87, and the incidence of injury from the disease 0 047
per cent. Roughly, therefore, it may be said that of every 100 children born
alive, one contracts the disease, and of every 2,000 born, one is blinded or partly
blinded by its effects.
He afterwards examined the returns of the examination of the vision of
children attending the elementary schools in London, and he found that one
child in about 4,000 showed the effects of the disease. He points out, however,
that in comparing the results of these two inquiries, no allowance was made for
the death of affected infants.
The English Census returns for 1901 show that 1 person in every 7,000
was blind from childhood. If the conditions found in the London schools
were applied to the whole population it would mean that in 1901 there were
living 1,000 to 2,000 persons who were blind from purulent ophthalmia contracted
at birth, and where blindness might have been prevented.
Dr. Harman in his valuable contribution to the literature on this subject
asks three questions:—
(1.) What is the cause, or the most frequent cause, of the condition known
as Ophthalmia Neonatorum?
(2.) Is the disease a danger to the members of the community other than
the infants affected?
(3.) What class of the population are most affected by the disease ?
And he answered these as follows:—
(1.) A careful examination of a large number of cases of purulent discharge
in the new-born has shown that 80 per cent, are due to inoculation
of the eyes at or about the time of birth with gonorrhœal virus; and