Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 February 1916 — UNCLE SAM IS EYE DOCTOR TO MOUNTAINEERS [ARTICLE]

UNCLE SAM IS EYE DOCTOR TO MOUNTAINEERS

Public Health Service Doing Great Work Among Purest Blooded Americans. TRACHOMA IN THE MOUNTAINS Curing of Sore Eyes on an Enormous Scale Is Humanitarian Task Being Performed in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. Washington. —In a way—a very dif.erent way—the United States public health service is doing the very thing which Mark Twain’s irresistible “Colonel Sellers” proposed to do with his “matchless, incomparable and altogether marvelous eye-water.” The colonel’s plea for his eye-water, very much paraphrased, ran something like this: “One million people in the United States have sore eyes, one million, sir! And now come I, with nature’s most potent balsam —dew of earliest morn, plus distillations of the rarest herbs of field and forest —which, upon dropping one drop in the eye, soothes and cools, and which, upon repetition until the entire bottle is used, forever banishes pains and aches of every description. We ■will sell 10,000 bottles the first year at $2 a bottle —10,000 people cured of sore eyes, $20,000! We will Bell 20,000 bottles the second year —20,000 pairs of eyes made whole, 20,000 grateful hearts, $40,000! The third year we will sell, etc.” The public health service is not pushing its own or anybody’s eye-wa-ter, and is not advancing its own or anybody’s money-making scheme. But its most picturesque work' has to do with the curing of sore eyes on an enormous scale. If direct parallel lies with the visionary scheme of Colonel Sellers, it is in the number of grateful hearts which thank this federal agency for restored vision. This humanitarian work is being done among the purest-blooded white Americans in America —the mountaineers of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. Down in these mountains, in small, isolated towns, far from railroads, are five little government hospitals which treat victims of sore eyes on a scale as large as that of many of the numerous city hospitals devoted to this specialty. Trachoma in the Mountains. -The chief cause of “sore eyes” in the mountains is trachoma. Possibly Mark Twain knew the prevalence of this affliction in the mountain sections of the South and Middle West and hence knew of the acute need for -some such wonderful concoction as Colonel Sellers’ eye-water. Very likely, the great humorist drew his inspiration from this knowledge.

i Strange to say, however, the wider ' spread existence of trachoma within the borders of the United States waited many years for official “discovery.” i For a long time, the experts talked of trachoma as an exotic disease. On the theory that it came from abroad and the chief danger to the American public lay in the admission of infected immigrants, trachoma was made one of the quarantinable diseases, j Every applicant for entry into the United States is carefully examined for traces of trachoma and thousands of otherwise good citizen-material have been turned back to their native landsTrom our ports because they had trachoma.

The “discovery” came a little more than three years ago, when Dr. J. A. Stuckey of Lexington, Ky., called the attention of federal authorities to the numerous cases of trachoma in the Kentucky mountains. Surgeon John McMullen, who had experience with trachoma patients at the New York and Philadelphia immigration stations, conducted an investigation. Of 4,000 mountaineers examined, it was found thqf §OO had trachoma. In consequence the hospitals were established; three in Kentucky, one in Virginia and one in West Virginia; at Jackson, London j -- J ond at Oophurn Va., and Welch, W. Va. These hospitals had more than 1,700 cases and performed 193 eye operations last October. . • Effect In the Mountain*Trachoma is a disease of the eyelids. Granulated or Bandy lids, it is often called. It leads to serlou* in- . .T , ■ **■.•*. ■V' ■' •• * - J.. • i ..- : V..

flammation and blindness. It is both communicable and curable Among the mountaineers the work of curing the actual cases is proceeding rapidly; but more important is the task of teaching the mountain population to avoid infection by adopting more sanitary living arrangements. Their cabin homes are overcrowded; they use common wash basins and common towels; the mother is apt to wipe the eyes of the child with an apron upon which she wipes her own. These people have lived much as they do now for 160 years, and, except for communicable diseases, such as trachoma, they are a healthy class. To effect change among them, in view of their isolation and decidedly settled opinions, has been a large undertaking. The public health service is working a change among them, however. Frequent meetings are held in schoolhouses and churches, at which stereopticon slides are exhibited showing the precise means by which trachoma and other diseases, including typhoid, spread. This campaign of education has made rapid headway and, as cures multiply, the faitji of the mountain public in Uncle Sam’s teaching is increased. Only a few years ago the sort of visitor from the United States government who was familiar in the Kentucky mountains carried a Winchester. He was looking for secret whisky stills and was venturing upon a dangerous errand among a very hostile people. The good Samaritan from the public health office, ppon his errand of love and charity, has npw become as thoroughly an established character in this rugged region as the internal revenue agent used to be. Probably no other influence has served more effectively to bring the outside world into close and friendly relations with the mountaineers. Sixty Miles for Treatment. “That these people realize and appreciate what we are trying to do for them,” said the medical officer in charge of the trachoma work at the headquarters of the public health service in Washington recently, “was impressed upon toe by an incident which occurred when I was at the Hindman hospital not long since. “An old man brought in his son who was badly afflicted with trachoma. It was decided that an operation was necessary, but the boy overheard us tell his father this.- The lad slipped out and ran away, home. It was 20 miles across the mountains. The father and son had walked this 20 miles to the hospital. “The father at once walked back, found his son and repeated the long foot journey into Hindman the next day, where the operation was performed and the boy cured. That meant a. 60-mile trip on foot —hard, rough going all the way—by the parent to force his son to take advantage of the opportunity offered by the government. “When we see these things we know our work is well worth doing.” The appeal of such incidents to the hearts of a simple, natural and kindly people is manifest. There was the case of a mother of four children, none of whom she had ever seen. ThA vision of both eyes was so far impaired by trachoma that in bright sunlight she could not recognize anyone. Following brief treatment at one of the mountain hospitals she returned to her family and saw her children for the first time. There was an old man who was led 40 miles across the mountains for treatment. Though blind for years, his vision was restored and he returned home without escort. As stated, there Is no miracle-cure about it; no use of marvelous eye-wa-ter, no mystery whatever. Eliminating medical terms, it Is largely a business of rolling back and sandpapering the inside of the eyelids. After that, comes thorough cleansing, continued regularly by the patient. Of course, if the convalescent returns -to the cabin and uses infected towels, the disease returns. The work of the government surgeons in the mountains is not limited to trachoma. Not long ago one unusually busy day, an assistant surgeon general of the public health service received an unexpected visitor. It was a teacher from Hindman, Ky., where the eye hospital has since been established. She had ridden 23 miles to the railroad station and thence had made the long trip to Washington upon most urgent business. The assistant surgepn general had made her acquaintance* ftx-course of fh%4w£chomi*fleld investigations. Finding Typhoid Source. "Doctor," she said, “there are 50. cases of typhoid in Hindman and no means of caring for them. We do not know the cause of the epidemic and I came here to see if you cannot help us.”

“How long will you be taawol 1 * aha was asked. “I am stalling back this afternoon. ’ “We'll send one of our men with you.” So, the second day following, a federal health officer accompanied the schoolteacher on the ride into Hindman. In a sense, the surgeon went armed, but not with rifle and ammunition. A packhorse bore his arms —a very ordinary looking box containing a field laboratory especially designed for emergency war against typhoid. He had serums for those already ill and assisted the local doctors materially in treating those already sick. What was more important, he had the means of locating the cause of the epidemic. This, after patient investigation, he finally discovered. A typical mountain stream, cold and clear as crystal, runs through the center of the town. Some three miles up this stream the federal surgeon found the home of a “chronic typhoid case.” In Hindman the stream flowed near a well used by the pupils of the school. The water from the stream, bearing typhoid germs, had seeped through crevices in a limestone formation into the well. "