The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-02-04
Picturesque Work Among
 Kentucky Mountaineers.

I Strange to say, the widespread e1z- | istence of trachorna within the United
 States waited many years for official I ''discovery."
 l Trachoma is a disease of the eyes that often leads to total blindness and is easily communicable. This dis covery came a little over three years ago when Doctor J. A. Stuckey or Lexington, Kentucky, called the atten- ton of the federal authorities to the numerous cases of trachoma in the Kentucky mountains
 Surgeon John McMu11en, who had experience with trachoma patients at | the New York and Philadelphia inn migration stations. conducted an. in vestigation. Of 4,OOO mountaineers | examined, it was found that 500 had trachona. In consequence hospitals ! were established; three in Kentucky. one in Virginia and one in West Vir- ginia; at Jackson. London and Hind
 man, Kentucky and at Coeburn, V1r- ginia and We1ch, West Virginia. These
 hospitals had over 1,700 cases and performed 193 eye operations last Oc- tober.
 Only a few years ago the sort of visitor from the U. s. Government who was familiar in the Kentucky l mountains, carried a Winchester. He
 was looking for secret whiskey stills and was venturing upon a dangerous | errand among a very hostile people. The Good Samaritan from the Public Health Service, upon his errand Of love and charity. has now become as i thoroughly an established character in this rugged region as the Internal Revenue Agent used to be- Probably no other influence has served more effectively to bring the outside world
 into close and friendly relations with 1 the nountaineers.
 al nd
 preciate what we are doing for them,' 9 l said the medical officer in charge of trachona work at the headquarters 1 of the Public Health Service in Wash ington recently, was impressed upon
 me by an incident which occurred when I was at the Hindman Hospital not long since.
 An o1dS man brought in his son who was badly afflicted with tracho- l ma. It was decided that an opera ton was necessary, but the boy over | heard us tell his father this. The 1 lad slipped out and ran away, home.
 It was twenty miles across the noun 1 tains. The father and son had walk | ed this twenty miles to the hospital. 1 a''The father at once walked back,
 found his son, and. repeated the long
 foot-journey into Hindm the next
 day. where the operation" was per- 1 formed and the boy cured. That
 
 | rough. going all the way-bya the, pa
 rent to force his son to take, advan-
 tage of the opportunity offered by the l Government.
 I When we see these things we know | our work is we'll worth doing
 The appeal of such incidents to the
 hearts of a simple, natural and kind
 1y people is manifest. There was l the case of mother of four children, i none of whom she had ever seen. The 1 vision of both eyes was so far impair
 ed by trachoma that in bright sum- light she could not recognize anyone 1 Following brief treatment at one ot
 the mountain hospitals, she returned l to her family and saw her children l for the first time.
 There was an old man who was l led forty. miles across the mountains I for treatment. Though blind fo1 I years, his vision was restored and he
 returned home without escort.