Trachoma

Trachoma is an inflammatory disease of the eye. For centuries, it has been prevalent in different parts of Asia, especially in China and the Malayan Archipelago; in Egypt and other parts of Africa; in the Balkans, Austria, Hungary, Germany and other parts of Europe. Such is its character that the man who suffers from it burrows in darkness, and lives out his life (for the disease is generally incurable) in dread of the light. Any brightness sears the nerves of the brain like molten metal. Great efforts have been made to keep the disease out of the U. S.; it has nevertheless crept in. Over 70,000 Amerindians are reported to have it. It is most common in the Alleghenies, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, Illinois. Last week, it was suggested that trachoma be made a subject of special research at the Wilmer Institute for Diseases of the Eye, now being built by the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School, Baltimore, Md. Said Dr. John McMullen, trachoma expert: "It is a dreadful disease. I saw a girl once who had kept her arm over her eye for 18 years--so long that it was rigid in this position, and could not be moved."