OCR Text |
Show POINTS ON KEEPING WELL DR. FREDERICK R. GREEN Editor of "HEALTH" l. 1HB. v eulern Newspaper Union. J j CATARACT THE eye is a photographic camera, or, rather, the camera is an imitation imi-tation of the eye. The light rays enter the camera through the lens and fail on the film or plate. The same arrangement ar-rangement exists in the eye. The eyelids eye-lids are the shutters; the crystalline lens is the focusing machinery; the retina is the plate. If the lens in your camera became cloudy or opaque, you couldn't take a picture. If anything happens to the crystalline lens in the eye so that the light cannot pass through it, then that eye cannot see, because no light can reach the retina. The old Greeks and Romans thought that vision was located In the lens. When it became thickened and white, they thought that water had fallen down in front of the lens, so they called this waterfall by Its Greek name, cataract. We now know that this thickening is not in front of the lens but in the lens Itself or In the capsule or envelope which surrounds it. This thickening of the lens often occurs oc-curs in old age. Just why the lens thickens in old age we do not know. It may be one of the changes due to age, like gray hair. Kut many old people never have cataract. It is sometimes found in young children. It may be caused by other conditions, such as diabetes, Bright's disease, poisoning, poi-soning, injury or eyestrain. It is especially frequent in persons exposed to high degrees of heat, such as glass blowers and furnace workers. It is sometimes hereditary. In the beginning the clear, transparent transpar-ent lens becomes spotted, or streaked with white bands, the vision is weakened weak-ened or the patient may see double, or may see black specks. One peculiar symptom is that the patient can see Better In the twilight than he can in bright daylight. The white spots and bands slowly . increase, the pupil becomes be-comes v.-hite and the patient gradually becomes blind. Cataract may affect one or both eyes or it may attack the eyes successively. It may become stationary at any time, leaving the sight impaired but still present to a considerable degree, or it may rapidly develop in both eyes until the patient is completely blind. Cataract does not destroy sight. It forms a light-proof shutter in the front of the eye. If the thickened and useless use-less lens is removed, sight can be restored. re-stored. This is done by the eye surgeon, sur-geon, who nicks the conjunctiva, which covers the eyeball, cuts through the envelope which surrounds the lens and pops the hardened lens out through the opening just as the cook pops peas out of their pods. But this cannot be done successfully until the cataract is "ripe," that is, until the lens is hard enough to pop out in one piece. If done too soon, it won't come out clean ; if too late, it may have grown fast. The eye surgeon sur-geon can tell when the right time comes. When the cataract is removed, the light can get into tho eye. But the patient can't focus. So he has to have artificial lenses in the form of glasses to focus the light rays on the retina. ARE RIPE OLIVES DANGEROUS? DAN-GEROUS? THREE outbreaks of botulism pols-, pols-, oning from canned ripe olives occurred oc-curred in 1924. The reports of these cases in the newspapers have again aroused doubt in the public mind. Are ripe olives a dangerous food? A series of cases of botulism during dur-ing 1919 and 1920 had a marked effect on the purchase and consumption of ripe olives. The California fruit and vegetable growers and canners did everything In their power to improve and safeguard their goods. They asked the help of the state and national na-tional health authorities. They spent large sums for experts. They improved im-proved their methods of canning. They did every thing possible to reassure reas-sure the public. With the reassurance, reassur-ance, millions of cans of ripe olives have been purchased and eaten. Three cases of poisoning in a year -is, of course, a very small number. But what the individual purchaser and housewife wants to know is: How-can How-can I know that I am not going to get one of these three deadly cans?" To answer this question, the bureau of chemistry of '.he Department of Agriculture has made a second survey, which has just been reported in the December issue of the American Journal Jour-nal of Public Health. Nearly 3,000 sample cans of olives put up by' 20 packers from 30 states were examined. Spoiled or suspicious cans were not confined to any particular packer or to any special locality. Spoiled samples sam-ples included those whose contents were off color or had a suspicious smell, where the olives were soft or the liquid colored. In some cases, the cans were rusty or corroded inside, bulged or contained gas. Some of these cans hail remained on the dealers' deal-ers' shelves for several years. Summing up their findings the government gov-ernment experts say that canned ripe olives that are free from odor, softening soften-ing or discoloration, and where the cans are not bulged out, are not dangerous. dan-gerous. Don't buy any canned ripe olives unless the year of packing is marked on the can. If the olives are soft, discolored dis-colored or have a suspicious odor throw them out Don't take any chances. |