The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-11-11
PROPER DIET IN
 EYEDISEASES
Faulty Diet Leads to Seri- ous Eye MaIadies Re-
 ports Specialist
NEED OF VITAIdIN 4

II New York City, NoF 11--Fault,
 diet may lead to serious eye mala'
 dies, reports Dr Park Lewis, ol
 Buqflalo, N. Y., vice-president 0l
 the National Society for the Pre-
 vention of Blindness, dsicussinf
 Nutrition in Relation to the Eyes in the current issue of the society,"
 quarterly journal. The sight-sav'
 ing Review.
 The absence of 'vitamin A
 from the diet, for instance, causei
 .night blindness, which is nhank Tested by a difficulty in seing un.
 der faint illumination, as' in twi.
 light. This is only one of a mum. Der of different eye conditions that result from diet deficiency.
 "N has been only during the last quarter of a century" says Dr Lewis, s'that the researches of a humber of investigators, many of l them American, have explained the principles of the historic dietetic procedures, such as the feeding of 1 liver in night blindness or the use of fresh vegetables and citrus fruits in the treatment of scurvy. 'The word 'vitamin' has invaded the par1ance of the butcher, the baker, the grover, the housewife. the advertiser, as well as of the doctor, the nurse and the dietitian. orange juice, cod liver oil, rice, and fish (to mention but a few) are no longer merely so much food, but possessors of forces which make or break the human body. The mother to today knows that cod liver oil is given to pre- vent rickets; that orange and to- mato. juices possesses powers to prevent scurvy; that even bananas, which were considered practically poisonous for children, are now included in babies diets as health- full food.
 "The importance of recognition of food deficiencies has long been recognized in the more pronounc.. ed forms, such as scurvy, berfberi peiiagra, etc, but 1t must be re- membered that sligfter manifesto tions oI all of these conditions may may also accur when there is not A complete absence, but merely a limitation, of essentials in die. It is important. therefore in consid- ering disease of the eyes, that a regulation of diet be given prime attention, especially when such conditions cannot be ascribed to other causes.
 s.vitamin A is of special import tance because 1t has to do with changes occurring in the eyes. It has been known for ages that cer- tain conditions of malnutrttion had an effect upon eye changes, ana as long ago as the time of Hippo crates the use of liver was rec omeded for night blindness. Liv- ingstone, when exploring in Africa related that when his party was obliged for a time to live on roots and meal, there devoleped an af- lection of the eyes like that found in the case of animals limited to q etarchy diet. Poorly nourished slaves in Brazil during the last century suffered from a condition of night blindness rdryness of the
 "1his condition has recently been well understood and found due to-the absence of vitamin A in the diet. In an institution in Copen- hagen the young children. were divided into two groups; one group received milk. a plentiful source of vitamin A, and the- other re- ceived fat or vegetable fat in mar garine, lacking in this essential.
 In eight cases among those on the vegetable diet, exerosis developed and was subsequently reelived by cod liver oil. On the other hand, in the group given whole milk, no disturbance occurred.
 .sThe late pr James A. Stucky. who was very familiar with the condition of the mountaineers in Kentucky and Tennessee. was of the opiniO that may diseased con- ditions of the eyes in those sections were caused by malnutrition. In the badl ventilated and crowded
 novels in which many of these people live he found insufficient food, badly prepared. Meats were fried. and vegetables were boiled until Nall the essential substances were taken out of them, and the juices ('pot liquor') were given to the pigs. The pigs were fat and we'll nourished while the childhen were scrawny and weak. Through out the mountains were many cases of infiammations of the eyes.
 "When poor living conditions and diets were changed the eye diseases largely disappeared. A deficiency of vitanin B, said pr Stucky, impairs the appetite and digestion, produces constipation, causes subnormal t @ m p erature (cold hands and feet) and various other manifestations referable to the nervous system. Dr Stucky was of the blief that trachoma was a deficiency disease which was dependent upon faulty or ill-bal- anved food supplies. An excessive starchy diet. in young children will sometimes so affect the eyelids that sites and cysts are produced: an dthe tendency may be control- led, when no refractive strain is