On granular disease of the conjunctiva and contagious ophthalmia / by Edward Nettleship.

  • Nettleship, Edward, 1845-1913.
Date:
[1874-1875]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On granular disease of the conjunctiva and contagious ophthalmia / by Edward Nettleship. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    ture, and utensils. Nor would I attempt general disinfection of linen or other clothing or of bedding, except under the same unusual circumstances, and perhaps also in special very bad cases if such should occur. Much has been said at different times about the necessity of classifying cases according to their degree of severity in the wards and day-rooms, &c. I should think it undesirable that any case of severe purulent ophthalmia should sleep or live in the same room with others not similarly affected, and much more that several such cases should be mixed with comparatively healthy children. It is further desirable that children who are known to be subject to severe relapses should sleep apart from those who are in a more stable con- dition of cure; the same dormitories might also conveniently include cases with considerable chronic discharge. Beyond this it is not, however, practicable to go, and even to the extent here indicated it will not always be found easy to attain in a school or infirmary with large wards and comparatively few officers, and which is constantly nearly full of children. There are other reasons besides the prevention of contagion which render the permanent separation of ophthalmic children from healthy ones necessary. The foremost of these, which has been mentioned above, is that the education (using the word in its largest sense) of the ophthalmic children may not be interrupted more than is abso- lutely necessary while they are suffering or are liable to suffer from the disease. Again, more or less special provisions are desirable for some of them, e. g. those with opacities of the cornea or with persistent photophobia, and for others whose general health is bad, for it often happens that ophthalmia attacks most severely those who are least able to resist external causes of disease. To condemn all these children to several years of idleness, or what is almost as bad, to years of intermittent schooling and idleness, is to do them a great injustice, and to add to their already somewhat impaired prospects of earning an early and good living. The bad effect of the ordinary plan on these children must be seen to be appreciated. Those cases which are not treated personally by the medical officer, or in which all treatment has been omitted for a time, should be inspected by him at moderately short intervals, say once a week. The playground should, if possible, be of grass, and in default of this either asphalte1 or flags should be used. Such an ophthalmic school as is here intended should have wards set apart for its own ordinary sick cases, so that these need not be mixed with the sick children from the rest of the school. All ophthalmic cases in which the state of the eyes admits of it 1 Asphalte and tar-paving are more dusty, and dirtier tbau flags.