The doctor at home and nurse's guidebook / edited by George Black.

Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The doctor at home and nurse's guidebook / edited by George Black. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    83/684 (page 59)
    after exercising the faculty for many years, have, from whatever cause, been rendered totally blind for the rest of their lives. John Mil- ton was forty-four before he lost his sight and Henry Fawcett was twenty-five when he was shot in both eyes whilst engaged in part- ridge-shooting. Milton’s calamity inspired the magnificent apostrophe to Light with which the third book of Paradise Lost opens, but his ex- perience informed the beautiful passage at which he professed his delight at still being able to wander in memory amidst the haunts of the Muses, or that in which he invoked the solace and support of celestial light to irradiate his mind. Blind- ness either is due, speaking broadly, to disease of the optic nerve or of adjacent parts involving the nerve, or may be the result of such illnesses as measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough and smallpox. In some cases, comparatively few in num- ber, infants are born blind, but in- flammation of the eyes in babies, which has been neglected or ignor- antly treated, is a fruitful source of eye mischief and actual loss of sight. Apart from troubles directly affecting the eyes and such com- plaints as those already mentioned, accidents such as gunshot wounds, the unexpected discharge of ex- plosives in blasting operations, and the malicious use of certain chemi- cals have not infrequently destroyed the sight. Much has been done to ameliorate the condition of the blind. Institutions in which they are cared for and workshops where they are trained to follow a variety of trades have been established in many countries, while societies have been founded for the purpose of visiting them in their homes with the twofold object of alleviating the monotony of their lives and imparting the elements of know- ledge. Nor are the professions denied them and blind students are to be found attending many uni- versities and musical conservatoires. For more than a century several systems of printing have been in vogue, whereby the blind can now read the Bible and the greatest of the world’s classics. Of these sys- tems the one that is probably des- tined most completely to meet the requirements of their case is that invented by a Frenchman named Louis Braille (1809-52), whom an accident had deprived of sight when three years old. This system con- sists of a combination of thick and thin dots and its extreme simplicity has commended it, very generally, to the blind themselves. BLISTERED FEET IN WALKING. To prevent the feet from blister- ing, it is a good plan to soap the inside of the stocking before setting out. After some hours on the road, whenever the feet are be- ginning to be chafed, take off the shoes and change the stock- ings, putting what was the right stocking on the left foot, and the left stocking on the right foot. Or, if only one foot hurts, take off the boot and turn the stocking inside out. When a blister has formed, the feet should be rubbed, on going to bed, with spirits mixed with tallow dropped from a candle into the palm of the hand ; next morning the blister will have disappeared. The spirits seem to possess the heal- ing power, the tallow serving only to keep the skin soft and pliant. A little boracic or eucalyptus oint- ment is equally effective and simple of application. BLISTERS. No blister should be applied