OCR Text |
Show War Causes Development Of New Plastic Eye A plastic eye almost impossible of detection from the real thing is the latest development of the laboratories laborato-ries to meet war's complete shut-off of the source of supply, according to Dr. Theodore J. Dimitry of New Orleans, writing in the Journal of the International College of Surgeons. Sur-geons. Some 170,000 artificial eyes are used in the United States each year, Dr. Dimitry states, and of this number num-ber Germany supplied 150,000 before be-fore the war started. However, American ingenuity has already forestalled the necessity of returning to the ancient patch over the eye when the stock of not more than 250,000 artificial eyes the United States had on hand at the outbreak of the war is completely gone, Dr. Dimitry says. The new type of artificial eye, made from acrylic resins, is fully 80 per cent machine-made and can be turned out in mass production. Not only is the plastic eye capable of being turned out in huge numbers if necessary, nec-essary, but it is many times better than the best glass eyes which heretofore here-tofore have come almost exclusively from Germany. The new plastic eye will move in harmony with the companion eye, writes Dr. Dimitry, impossible with the old type of glass eye which was set in a fixed position posi-tion in the eye socket The iris coloring col-oring and the size of the pupil of the new plastic eye can be made to match the real eye perfectly by means of color photography. Down to the present day, Germany has had a virtual monopoly of the artificial eye industry. With one exception, all eye making firms in the United States used German glass before the war. But the discovery of the use of plastics in the making mak-ing of artificial eyes will eventually make our country entirely self-supporting in this market since all the materials for the synthetic resins are found here. Plastic artificial eyes, states the article in the Journal Jour-nal of the International College of Surgeons, are immediately available availa-ble and only await commercial production. |