View report page

blind and partially blind
children
Totally Blind Children.
The interrupted line gives the number of totally blind children
who have been educated at Special Schools for the Blind at the
expense of the Borough of Hournsey during the last 26 years, from
1913 to 1938
i x lj dur nq the las' years, trom
expense of the Borough of Hornsey aurmy
1913 to 1938. .
r ,I x* + X +u;c neriod the number varied from
For the first nine years ot this periu
, i- c +i i 4. ■ u+ wpars the number is one. This
three to five. For the last eight yean. =_ar,+c ,
one case is a child from another district » P v® resi e
in Hornsey since 1931. Apart from imported °b^;s'he Author.ty
has had no totally blind child to educate or
This wonderful change is the result of the efficient methods
for the prevention and the treatment of Ophthalmia Neonatorum,
which have been in operation for the ^+V years.
Ophthalmia Neonatorum—" inflammation o e new
born " an extremely infectious and virulent d,se.se-.nd used ,o be
on, of the commonest causes of total bhndness. Prophy.ctic
treatment of the eyes of the new JThoTpltd JoTcl""
by doctors and mid-wives, immediate re , . ,,
tinuous hourly or half-hourly treatment day and night, are the
methods by which this cause of blindness as een conquere .
Cases occurring in Hornsey are removed immediately to St.
Margaret's Hospital, Kentish Town-3 hospital °[ ^ London
County Council, which specialises in the treatment of Ophthalmia
Neonatorum. Since this arrangement has been in force no case
x I I- J x n (rnm this cause has been recorded
of blindness ot even one eye trom
in Hornsey.
Partially Blind Children.
Partially blind children fall into two icat®^or'®s'
(a) Children who from " Ophthalmia at birth or from inflammatory
conditions of the eyes at a later age have their eyesight
so damaged that they are unable to read the books used ,n ordinary
elementary schools. They are few in num er.
(b) Children suffering from severe errors in the refractive
Mechanism of the eyes, especially the error known as " Myopia,"
or short sightedness. These form the great maprity of the Hornsey
children represented in the continuous line in the chart. |n the
early twenties of this century the experiment was made of sending