Report of E. Nettleship on ophthalmia at the school in Hanwell.

  • Nettleship, Edward, 1845-1913.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of E. Nettleship on ophthalmia at the school in Hanwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    out of the 47 were discharged prior to my Report of October 27th, 1890. In that Report, it may be remembered, I advised your Board that it was not wise to discharge any cured cases from the Ophthalmic School until the alterations in the main School buildings were completed. I pointed out that cured cases, if exposed to the insanitary influences of the old School, were very liable indeed again to become diseased. Your Board assented to this course of inaction. The cured cases are still in the Isolation School. The alterations are not yet completed ; and, until such time as they are, I shall discharge no more children. And now a word in regard to the 32 girls who have been sent away to service direct from the Isolation School. Deem- ing it a matter of considerable importance and of much interest to ascertain their present condition, I have, within the last three weeks, personally visited and examined 29 of them ; the 3 girls I have not seen are beyond reach at Eastbourne, etc. In general terms, I may at once say that their present state is very satisfactory, for, out of the 29, I found only three cases in which the eyes threaten to give any further trouble. The remainder, 26 in number, remain quiescent. In the three unsatisfactory cases, it is by no means certain that eventual trouble will ensue, and it is for this reason that I use the word threaten; in any circumstances, I shall, of course, see these girls at intervals. Considering the treacherous nature of the disease (which, when once it has fastened in a severe form upon a patient, is not only very difficult to get rid of, but which, even when apparently cured, is liable to recur with the lapse of time), I am justified, I think, in regarding this result (which is equal to 90 per cent, of permanent cures) as exceptionally encouraging. Some of these girls furnished, indeed, the worst examples of Granular Lids with which