Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1897-05-15
THE WORLDS BLIND.


| Curious Facts About the Sightless and tho
Care Taken of Them In Various Lands.
A paragraph is travelling about to
the effect that the worlds blind are
computed to number 1000, 600
about one sightless person to every
/, 500 inhabitants. II the proportion
Of sightless persons were the same
IN every country, or substantially
SO, it would be easier to conclude
that blindness is due to causes which
neither skill nor foresight can pre-
vent. But the truth of the matter,
as has been pointed out by distin-
guished German oculist, is that the
great majority of cases of blindness
are due to fever, and the same at-
thorities declare that rs per cent of
the afflicted persons could have re-
tanned their sight had they been
properly treated.
Some figures in confederation of
this are supplied by the official sta
tistics of both England and France.
BY the last reports there were 90, 900
sightloss persons in ngland, the
average being $40 for each 1000, 900
inhabitants. The percentage Of
blind persons among infants of less
than years was 1865 for each
/, 600, 900; between and Is it rose
to 2SS; between 20 and 25 to 422;
between Is and 60 to 1925, and
above G5 years of age 1000 for each
1000, 600 Inhabitants. Similarly in
France the official figures show that
only one sixth of the sightless were
born blind, and five-siXths became
blind through illness or accident.
Tho French official figures further
show that of those born blind IS per
cent were male and only 35 per cent
female children. Another curious
result shown by the figures is found
in the fact that while the number
of blind male and blind female
adults was substantially the same,
the number of sightless married
men in France is double the number
of sightlcss married women Less
than 10 per cent of the total num-
Der of eightless persons in France
by the last report were under the
age of 81.
Russia and Egypt are the two
countries i'll which blind persons
constitute the largest propoltionate
number of tho total population--in
Russia, on account of the lack of ex-
pcrienced medical attention, and in
Egypt OH account of Ophthalmia,
due to the movement of the sand by
the wind, on, more properly, to the
irritation caused by this unusual To-
cal condition, which has made Oph-
thalmia general.
There were at last accounts near
ly 200, 900 blind persons in European
Russia, the proportion being high
est in the northern provinces and
conspicuously 50 in Finland, where
the prevalence of blindness, four
times greater than the general aver
uge III Europe, is ascribed to the
fairness Of the country and the inn
perfect ventilation Of the huts used
by the peasantry. Many of these
huts are either without chimncysor
ire supplied with primitive chin
neys, which do not draw, and the
escape of tho smoke into the living
apartments has Il marked tendency
to aggravatc all eye tn ubles.
Though moe than half the blind
population of Europe is to be found
IN Russia there are only % asylams
for the blind i'll that empire. one
tenth of the total number i'll Eu-
rope. Though the number of blind
persons in tie United States is less
than one-third as large as the num-
Der in Russia, the plumber of in
mates of blind asylums in the Unit
ed States is larger than i'll any 9TH
en- country of the world. By the
last reports the total number of pu-
nils in institutions for the blind in
the Unitel States was 3,4s9, and
the grounds and buildings devoted
to their use were valued at Sc, OOO,-
OOO.-New York Sun.