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Now I must tell you of some of the other conditions and needs which we find when we come to know the blind in their homes; and among them I must speak of some very distressing conditions, because we need your help in overcoming them. The first is that of lay efforts towards the prevention of blindness. Nothing, perhaps, makes us more confident that this new movement in behalf of the blind means a real revolution than this, that its watch-word is prevention. All of which let me illustrate by telling you about the campaign for prevention of blindness in which the organized medical profession leads the way, and in which the share of lay workers is already pointed out. To get the length and breadth of the campaign for prevention throughout the country read the report of the committee on ophthalmia neonatorum to the American Medical Association, last June. (5) Here in Massachusetts the Eye and Ear Infirmary, a year ago, welcomed a social worker, one of whose duties is to discover, by investigation and individual work among the patients, what may be done in a social way to supplement the medical work for the prevention of blindness.

Ophthalmia neonatorum is, as you no doubt know, a germ disease, due to venereal disease in the mother, occurring in the form of inflammation in the eyes of the newly born, which, with medical care and sufficient nursing, probably never need result in blindness. It is most likely to result in blindness among the poor because of lack of medical advice and proper nursing both before and after the child's birth. As it is, at least one-fourth of the blind in all our schools for the blind today are blind as a result of this disease. At the Boston Blind Babies' Nursery, out of fifty-one children who had come under their care, thirty-one were, their oculist states, blind from this cause. Those of us who know personally the tragic little group of children born in Massachusetts who have become blind from this disease within the last five years, and those of us who know the additional group, not blind, but whose eyesight is impaired for life because they reached the hospitals too late, appeal to you to inform yourself in this matter. Will you not, social workers, take to your offices and give to your district nurses and others the poster which you will find in our exhibit headed, Stop Blindness? (6) Will you not read the paper by Dr. F. Park Lewis, chairman of the Committee of the American Medical Association of which I have spoken; and especially will you not read the paper of Dr. Frederick Cheney, which you will also find in connection with our exhibit, which tells of this disease in the state of Massachusetts? (7) And let none of us ever leave it a matter of doubt as to whether the mothers in our care have medical attendance, and babies with inflamed eyes are sent to hospitals. We have in our office a map of Massachusetts on which we place a red spot for each child born in this state during the last five years who is blind from ophthalmia neonatorum. When the facts are known, it becomes intolerable even that such a map exists, and as our New York fellow-workers have said, the continued blinding of little children becomes a crime. Knowing the social conditions surrounding many of these cases, we most emphasize that here in Massachusetts at least, where we have proper legislation, and where we are rich in medical resources, the remaining work is largely that of general education and of putting people in touch with our medical resources. In common with so many lines of endeavor, it weighs heavily upon those of us who come in contact with the poor at their time of greatest need.

(7) We hope to print this paper in the next issue of this magazine.

The second condition which I wish to bring especially to your attention is that of needless delay in bringing to the service of the blind the resources for helping them. There are, as you no doubt know, in this state the Boston Nursery for Blind Babies, for children under five; the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind, for normal persons under nineteen; for adults, State Home Teachers for teaching raised types and simple home industries, a workshop for mattress and chair work connected with Perkins School; for the sale of both home and shop products, the Salesrooms of the Perkins School and the Commission, both now under the same roof at 383 Boylston Street, Boston, and the shops, shop schools, and educational and industrial aid possible under the commission; for a limited number of homeless adults, the Memorial Home for the Blind at Worcester; the Association which publishes the Outlook for the Blind, not to mention the medical, social, educational, and other agencies open to the blind as well as the seeing.

During the last three years I have had occasion to visit a thousand or more homes in which there is a blind member of the family, and to know through other field workers as many more. We have seen, among other things, the results of delays and inactivity in the lives of blind persons. First of all, delays in education of children, when, to make them useful citizens, blind children need more rather than less education than the seeing. As a result of a special study of blind persons under twenty years of age, last year, we referred to Perkins School twenty-five children, of whom sixteen were over ten years of age and six over fourteen years of age. Thirteen had become blind under one year, so that there was an average delay of five years in beginning the education of these twenty-five children -- a serious matter with seeing children; how much more in theirs! The compulsory education law has, so far as I know, never been enforced in this state as regards blind children. At present, at least, it is a matter of making known to parents the need of early and adequate training, wherever the child is. You will find in connection with our exhibit a pamphlet addressed "To the Parents of Blind Children." (8) It is translated from the German by Mr. Allen of Perkins School. We have had it reprinted in both English and French. Presently I hope it will be as much a matter of course that handicapped children are reported by the yearly school census for education as that seeing children who are capable of education are so reported.