PROPHYLAXIS AGAINST OPHTHALMIA NEONATORUM

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Abstract
Sixty-seven years ago Credé, an obstetrician of Leipzig, Germany, first used silver nitrate in prophylaxis against ophthalmia neonatorum. With a small glass rod he instilled a single drop of 2 per cent silver nitrate into each eye of the newborn immediately after birth. Before the instillation, the eyes were cleansed with ordinary water and, afterward, were "cooled for twenty-four hours by means of a linen flap which had been saturated with salicylated water (2: 100)."1 The silver nitrate drop method for prophylaxis became popular almost immediately and has remained so up to the present time. In Johnson's digest of the laws relating to ophthalmia neonatorum (1940), silver nitrate is mentioned most frequently as a preferred germicide.2 However, an element of opposition has existed. Even during Dr. Credé's time, objection arose because of the intense irritation which silver nitrate occasionally produced.3 Hartman has placed the incidence of chemical