Blindness and Other Diseases in Children Arising From Deficient Nutrition (Lack of Fat-Soluble a Factor)

While blindness in children has been on the decrease in the greater part of the civilized world, the opposite is true in Denmark. Blindness in children has increased not only absolutely but also relatively to the population. Many causes have contributed to the diminution of blindness in other countries, but the chief one undoubtedly is that gonorrheal ophthalmoblenorrhea in the new-born has become a rare disease as a result of the special measures which have been adopted against it everywhere. That gonorrheal ophthalmia has become a rarity is also true in Denmark, but in spite of this the percentage of blindness in children is increasing. There is, however, another disease of the eye peculiar to childhood which leads to blindness: xerophthalmia. It was first described in the middle of the last century by German ophthalmologists. According to all previous reports, xerophthalmia had a serious prognosis, as it occurred particularly in