The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1922-06-02
Childhood Blindness
Being Reduced by
Combined Attacks

NEW YORK, May 26-(Associatet
Press Mail)-The combined forces OF
medicine, legislation, the press, and
other educational agencies are at last
getting the upper hand in the age-long
fight against the principal cause o.
blindness in childhood-babies sore
eyes according to the seventh annual
report of the National Committee for
the prevention of blindness, made
public today at the general office OF
the committee in the Russell Sage
Foundation Building.
But this information is cou%nteracted
by the statement in the report that
there is no abatement in the wave OF
blindness resulting from wood alcohol
poisoning which started soon after the
enactment of the Volstead law. The
report says that new legislation for
the prevention of blindness has been
passed in sever states: Connecticut,
Idaho, Iowa, New Mexico, Missouri,
Oklahoma and Texas.
Discussing ophthalmia neonatorum,
more commonly known as babies
sore eyes" or 80. N" among doctors,
Edward M. Van Cleve, managing di-
rector of the National Committee for
the prevention of blindness, said:
when we turn to a study of the
situation as respects this disease,
which destroys at birth the vision of
thousands of babies, we find new evil
dence of the effectiveness of Il con-
slant educational propaganda on the
subject. For more than Is ear pub
lie attention has been drawn to this
cause of needless blindness. Stats
tics gathered during the last year
show a smaller percentage of these
cases among newly admitted pupils in
special schools for the blind through
out America than in any previous
year"
Whereas two years ago 23.2 percent
of new admissions to these special
schools for the blind were cases Of
pupils blind from 90. NJ, the 1922
report of the committee shows that
in the last year this percentage drop
ped to 1875 percent, a reduction of al
most so percent.
Under the head of "MethanOl," the
new technical name for wood alcohol,
the report says: DAY by the day
the toll of wood alcohol poisoning is
taken. The wave seems to recede,
only to gain new impetus. Warnings
sent broadcast over the United States
have undoubtedly prevented many
from experiencing the tragedy of
blindness, but there are still those
who succumb to the temptation either
through ignorance or through wilful-
ness. The change of name to methanol
has eradicated the suggestion of a
beverage and a new method of pre-
venting its use as such has lately
been offered, so coloring it with
methyl violet that there can be no
possibility of mistaking it for the
grain product, an excellent suggestion
contributed by DR.. S. Lewis Ziegler.
1t is not uncommon for the commit
tee to receive notices of four or five
cases a day of poisoning from this
cause; these give no real intimation
of the many who, possibly through
partial immunity or because of the
small amount consumed, suffer deteri-
Grafton of sight rather than total
blindness. The change in name from
wood alcohol to methanol has had
considerable psychological effect"
, The committee also announces the
production this year of a three reel
moving picture entitled Saving the
Eyes of Youth"