Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 July 1881 — He Wanted Rest. [ARTICLE]

He Wanted Rest.

“Your husband requires rest,” said the doctor as he came from the sick chamber. “He will soon be well —he has a bad attack of tickerosis.” “Tickerosis, doctor; why, that’s a new disease, isn’t it?” “ Yes, quite new—it is caused by watching the tickers in the brokers’ offices. It affects the optic nerve and the spinal column.” Travelers in Egypt are surprised at the large amount of ophthalmia and blindness prevalent among the inhabitants. Want of cleanliness is the cause. An Egyptian mother, under the influence of a widely prevalent superstition, does not wash her child’s, eyes until eight days after birth. By that time the organ is frequently ruined. The teachers in the American and British mission schools of Cairo say that Egyptian mothers become invariably angry when urged to wash the eyes of their newly born infants, and can rarely be persuaded to comply with a request of the kind.