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Scleroderma neonatorum is an induration of the skin, congenital and occurring soon after birth, and is invariably fatal. A disease somewhat analogous is edema neonatorum, which is a subcutaneous edema with induration affecting the new-born. If complete it is invariably fatal, but in a few cases in which the process has been incomplete recovery has occurred.
"Babies' sore eyes," or ophthalmia neonatorum, is defined by Dr Sydney Stephenson as "an inflammatory disease of the conjunctiva, usually appearing within the first few days of life, due to the action of a pus-producing germ introduced into the eyes of the infant at birth."
There is a strange suggestion of a snake in his face, and he can manipulate his tongue, accompanied by hideous hisses, as viciously as a serpent." Under the name of dermatitis exfoliativa neonatorum, Ritter has described an eruption which he observed in the foundling asylum at Prague, where nearly 300 cases occurred in ten years.
There are a number of eye diseases that may be inherited, and those having such diseases should be told that they will transmit them to helpless, innocent children. The social evil is largely responsible for the infections of which ophthalmia neonatorum is only one result, but since this disease comes so often from a cause which is not generally discussed, it is particularly hard to combat.
The lungs decompose late, hence in a fresh body putrefaction of the lungs is absent; in a putrefied child, if the lungs sink, it must have been stillborn. The so-called emphysema pulmonum neonatorum is simply incipient putrefaction. The lung test simply shows that the child has breathed, but affords no proof that the child has been born alive.
As they depict him in their fevered treatises on illegitimacy, white-slave trading and ophthalmia neonatorum, the average male adult of the Christian and cultured countries leads a life of gaudy lubricity, rolling magnificently from one liaison to another, and with an almost endless queue of ruined milliners, dancers, charwomen, parlour-maids and waitresses behind him, all dying of poison and despair.
These words made a profound impression upon my childish mind, and as I sat and listened, while child after child was examined, and heard again and again the same remark, "needlessly blind!" I resolved to know more about this eye disease with the very long name, ophthalmia neonatorum, to learn its cause, and see just how it might have been prevented.
It was necessary to put the nurse on her guard as to the risks we were running. We should have had concave glasses to protect our eyes, and we spent part of our time washing our hands in bichloride solution. "Mrs. Abbott, what is it?" whispered the woman. "It has a long name," I replied "opthalmia neonatorum." "And what has caused it?" "The original cause," I responded, "is a man."
Ophthalmia neonatorum is a crime, because of the suffering it brings to helpless, innocent persons, and because it leads to a reduction in economic efficiency, deprivation of many pleasures and privileges and, very often, immeasurable misery, suffering and sorrow during a lifetime in the dark."
Hemophilia is rarely fatal in the first year. Of the hemorrhagic diseases of the new-born three are worthy of note. In syphilis haemorrhagica neonatorum the child may be born healthy, or just after birth there may appear extensive cutaneous extravasations with bleeding from the mucous surfaces and from the navel; the child may become deeply jaundiced.
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