1893-1894 - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

FIFTH BIENNIAL REPORT. 151
consequences can almost always be averted by pronipt recognition of its
presence and j^irojier management of tbe treatment. All well-educated
physicians are familiar with the disease, its treatment and its dangers;
they therefore require no instructions on these points. It is the mid-
M-ives and monthly nurses that we must reach and compel them if possil)le
to call in a qualified physician immediately upon the appearance of
redness or swelling of the eyes within the tirst two weeks of the life of
any infant under their charge. Legislation requiring such notification
under penalty for failure has been enacted by the States of New York,
Maine and Rhode Island. At the meeting of the American Medical
Association in 1893 a committee was ai>pointed by the Section of Opthalmology,
Dr. Lucien Howe, of Bufialo, oliairman, to urge such legislation.
The conjoint session adopted the following resolutions:
'^Resolved, That it is the sense of this conjoint session of the State
Board of Health and the State ^ledical
Society that legislation tending
to lessen blindness from this disease [ophlhalmia neouatonun), similar to
that already enacted in a number of the other States, is desirable.
"Resolved, That the Committee on Legislation of the ^ledical Society
be requested to use their best endeavor, if in their judgment after the
assembling of the Legislature in 1895 it be wise to agitate the subject, to
secure the enactment of such a law."
We are not sanguine enough to believe that any law on this subject
can be practically enforced in the present state of public opinion, but we
believe that its presence on the statute book and distribution throughout
the State will do good, will enlighten the people and save some innocent
little ones from a life of hopeless darkness.
PREVENTION OF TUBERCULOSIS.
As announced in the last Bulletin the campaign which the Board proposes
to conduct against the spread of tuberculosis in North Carolina
was opened by the admirable paper of Dr. S. Westray Battle, of Asheville,
read at the recent Salisbury Health Conference. It will appear in
the forthcoming Xortli Carolina Medical Journal and then 1)e distributed
in pamphlet form to every physician and manj- citizens of other callings
throughout the State. That is a good l)ig gun and we believe it will do
much execution, but in such a war as this—against an enemy so numerous
and so strongly entrenched— every death-dealing agency must be
brought into play. The medical men can operate the artillery, but the
main question is how to get the best repeating-rifles into the hands of
the rank and file—the people.
The Secretary is ex officio the leader in this fight, but he feels that
every physician is, under the principle of ric>l>h'sxe oblige, one of his
brother otficers.
He has cogitated deeplj" on the suViject of how to prac-