The log cabin Democrat., 1916-02-14
UNCLE SAM |S EYE DOCTOR ID
 M0UNTA|KIERS
Public Health Service Doing Great Work Among Purest
 BIooded Americans.
TRACHOMA IN THE MOUNTAINS
Curing of Sore Eyes on an Enormous Scale Is Humanitarian Task Be- ing Performed in Kentucky,
 Virginia and West Virginia.

l Washington-In a way-a very diff ferent way-the United States public health service is doing the very thing which Mark Twain's irresistible Col onel Sellers proposed to do with hls 'matchless, incomparabe and alto i gether marvellous eye-water."
 The colonel's plea for his eye-water. very much paraphrased, ran some thing like this:
 One million people in the United States have sore eyes, one million, sir. And now come I. with natures most potent balsam-dew of earliest morn, plus Installations of the rarest herbs of field and forest-which, upon drop l ping one drop in the eye, soothes and cools, and which, upon repetition un- til the entire bottle is used, forever banishes pains and aches of every de- scription. We will sell 10000 bottles the first year at $2 bottle-10, ,000 people cured of sore eyes, $20,000 We will sell 10000 bottles the second year 10000 pairs of eyes made whole, 10000 grateful hearts, $40,000! The third year we will sell, etc" The public health service is not pushing its own or anybody's eye-wa- ter, and is not advancing it's own or a-ybodys moneymaking scheme, But its most picturesque work has to do with the curing of sore eyes on az enormous scale. If direct parallel lies with the visionary scheme of Colonel Sellers, it is in the number of grateful hearts which thank this federal agen- cy for restored vision.
 This Humanitarian work is being done among the purest-blooded white Americans in America-the mountain eers of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. Down in these mountains, in small, isolated towns, far from rail roads, are five little government hos pitals which treat victims of sore eyes on scale as large as that of many of the numerous city hospitals de- voted to this speciality
 Trachoma in the Mountains.
 The chief cause of sore eyes" in the mountains is trachoma. Possibly Mark Twain knew the prevalence of this atfliction in the mountain sections of the South and Middle West and hence knew of the acute need for some such wonderful concoction as Colonel Sellers eye-water Very like. ly, the great humorist drew his inspir- ation from this knowledge.
 Strange to say. however, the wide spread existence of trachoma within the borders of the United States wait ed many years for official discovery" For long time, the experts talked of trachoma as an exotic disease On the theory that it came from abroad and the chief danger to the American public lay in the admission of infect ed immigrants, trachoma was made one of the quarantinable diseases.
 Every applicant for entry into the United States is carefully examined for traces of trachoma and thousands of otherwise good citizen-material have been turned back to their native lands from our ports because they had trachoma
 The discovery came a little more than three years ago, when Dr J. A. Stuckey of Lexington, Ky, called the attention of federal authorities to the numerous cases of trachoma in the Kentucky mountains. Surgeon John McMullen, who had experience with trachoma patients at the New York and Philadelphia immigration stations. conducted an investigation. Of 4,000 mountaineers examined. it was found that 800 had trachoma. In consequence the hospitals were established; three in Kentucky. one in Virginia and one in West Virginia; at Jackson, London and Hindman, Ky, and at Coeburn, Va. and Welch. w. Va. These hospi- tals had more than 1,700 cases and performed 193 eye operations last Oc- tober.
 Effect in the Mountains. Trachoma is a disease of the eye lids. Granulated or sandy lids, it is o:ten called. It leads to serious in,