PROPHYLAXIS AGAINST OPHTHALMIA NEONATORUM

Abstract

<h3>To the Editor:—</h3> At the June session of the American Medical Association this year, I presented a resolution before the Section on Ophthalmology condemning the use of silver nitrate and urging its replacement by antibiotics in the prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum. A copy of this resolution was published inThe JournalJuly 5. In the August 9 issue ofThe Journalthere appears an important publication entitled "Prophylaxis Against Ophthalmia Neonatorum" by H. Charles Franklin of Memphis, Tenn. This report is a comparison of the efficacy of penicillin compared with silver nitrate. Although this piece of research work has many weak points, it emphasizes the beginning of the end of silver nitrate in the prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum. Like most clinicians, Dr. Franklin seeks to point out the fallacy which most of us have glorified since the year 1884, that one drop of any chemical can stop the growth of