USE OF INFLAMED EYES.
A lesson that is very difficult for many of us to learn is that inflamed eyes should not be used actively. Children with sore eyes should not be allowed to go to school for two reasons. First, the use of their eyes in reading will prevent or retard their recovery. Secondly, sore eyes are usually communicable, and one such child may infect a whole school. It is highly important that all persons with inflamed eyes should use only their own wash basins, towels, and handkerchiefs, and so avoid spreading the disease. We not infrequently see a catarrhal inflammation of the eyes run through a whole family. Of course, they catch it one from another, and, as there is no disease of the eye which is, like measles, or scarlet fever, or smallpox, communicable through the air, such spread of the disease might easily be prevented by proper care of the person first affected. Persons whose eyes are sensitive to light should not be kept in dark rooms, which are always unhealthy. They may have their eyes protected by shades or by smoke colored glasses, but should keep them open and exposed to the air, and should remain out of doors as much as possible.