The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-10-24

sorts of new drugs and foods, TO
say nothing of substitutes for
drugs and substances with which
we were familiar enough to know
the faults.
Someone comes along with a
brand new sleeping drug or cold
cure or sulfacillin mixture for
triple infections somewhere. Well,
they put you TO sleep all right, or
kill off the infection and every
body is very enthusiastic about
them and slathers them around in
shovelful quantities and then
some day somebody who takes
some doesn't wake up or he breaks
out with a rash all over his bod Y,
or he goes blind and everybody
thinks it's very queec that such a
nice new drug should do such
hostile things. Nobody seems to
put it down to making new ac-
quaintances too fast, without
quite knowing what kind of people
they are.
/ haven't kept up lately with
the very latest drinking-parlor
technique, but from what learn
from the present war rum hounds
rum is really the right name.
Rum, the demon rum, used to be
banded around as scare word
by the temperance lecturers, but
it never scared any of the real old
topers like my Uncle Johnny who
used to lay his hand on his heart
and look a temperance lecturer
right in the eye and say he never
drank a drop Of rum in his life.
Causes of Amblyopia
Whiskey and gin and beer and
brandy and champagne and port
and sherry were good enough for
him. But now rum has come back
and with it strange colored drinks
of all kinds from the Argentine
and South Africa and Turkey, to
say nothing of some purely do
mestic products, made maybe out
of sunfower seeds. Those concoc-
tions line the liquor store shelves.
Then there. ere lots CT ycvnS
ladies who following the lead OF
the female congresswomen and
columnists have found out that
woman's place is to straighten out
the difficulties between outer Bull
garia and the conflicting interests
of China and Russia. While doing
all this Strengthening out they
chain smoke and chain smoke.
What | am leading up to in this
moral and sociological disquisi-
ton is that the times conduce to
getting such a thing as toxic am
blyopia, or haziness of vision, due
to the action of some unfamiliar
chemical on the retina and If you
should find yourself with about
half your visual field clouded some
morning don't necessarily put it
down to grief over the fate of the
Paretists in Italy. 1t may be some
thing you ate or drank or smoked,
no doubt.
Chemicals Affecting Retins
The chemicals which most COM
monty affect the retina or optic
nerve used to be alcohol, tobacco,
quinine and ergot. But enough
cases have now accumulated for
US to know that many plants, some
Of them in apparently a purely al
lergic way, produce amblyopia.
For example, boy packing plants
in moss in a florists had partial
loss of vision which cleared up
when he changed occupations.
A woman took a dozen tablets
containing salicylic acid and quiz
nine, went partially blind for
three mopths.
Alcohol and tobacco, especially
in combinations, however, lead the
list. ! remember one old reprobate
who used TO soak his stogies in
corn liquor for favoring. He
smoked 30 a day and drank the
liquor besides. 1t should be added
that though he went totally blind
his wife then had him where she
wanted him because he couldn't
see the bottle or the stogies, so
he gave up his habits and re-
covered.
Raw liquor because it is likely
TO have queer toxic alcohols and
vegetable juices in it is especially
dangerous.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
H. K.:-What would you do for
a nan az 81 ,nars With lnu, hlnnI