Mile-Stones in Sight Conservation *

Community interest in blindness was limited to simple charity for those afflicted until ophthalmology became a true science. Not until 1851 did Helmholtz develop the ophthalmoscope, and the first Professorship of Ophthalmology in the United States was not established until 1860 at Miami University. The first lecturer in ophthalmology at Yale, Dr. William Carmalt, was appointed in 1876. Since then this specialty has developed so rapidly that the American Board of Ophthalmology in 1915 was the first board to be organized to meet the need for certifying specialists. With advances in ophthalmology and bacteriology the medical profession became interested in the prevention of blindness. Crede in 1883 showed that the routine application of silver nitrate solution would eliminate ophthalmia neonatorum. In 1884 Ernst Fuchs published his classic treatise, The Causes and Prevention of Blindness, which still commands respect for its discussion not only of infectious causes but also of heredity, the use of eyes in school and in industry, illumination, trauma, and professional and popular education in ophthalmology. Dr. Lucien Howe of Buffalo in 1887 called the attention of the New York State Medical Society to contagious ophthalmia, and through his efforts in 1890 the state legislature passed a bill requiring midwives to report cases of ophthalmia to their local health officer. Other states soon passed similar laws but this infection continued to make babies blind. As late as 1906-7, ophthalmia neonatorum was responsible for 28 per cent of new admissions to schools for the blind. It was clear that these early laws were insufficient, and there was not yet an informed body of public opinion to support adequate legislation. In 1903 Dr. F. Park Lewis of Buffalo was appointed to head a "commission to investigate the condition of the blind in New York State." This ophthalmologist was famed in his own profession, but he has not had the public health recognition he merits. In 1907 a copy of his commission's report reached Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler of New York