According to recent statistics,1syphilis accounted for 5.3 per cent of the blindness among 2,702 children in schools for the blind. This study indicated that syphilis is probably responsible also for a large proportion of the blindness now classified as congenital or hereditary. Other investigators2have determined that blindness among pupils in schools for the blind and among persons applying for pensions for the blind is attributable to syphilis in percentages varying from 3.4 to 15. Cowan and Sinclair3reported that among 6,000 applicants for pensions for the blind in Pennsylvania, 566 eyes, or 9.4 per cent, were affected with syphilis. In a recent communication, however, Cowan4stated that this estimate is low because it represents merely the cases in which the examiner stated that syphilis was an etiologic factor, whereas, to cite only one source of possible error, many cases of interstitial keratitis were etiologically