Actually it was/is. The purpose was to kill gonorrhea and other pathogens, which if they end up in a newborn's eyes, will cause blindness.
http://victoria.tc.ca/~ya462/causes.htm Ophthalmia Neonatorum is an eye infection that strikes newborn babies. It is caused by certain bacteria that pass from the mother's birth canal into the infant's eyes. These bacteria include the ones that cause gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease. The symptoms of ophthalmia neonatorum--inflammation of the eyelids and cornea--appear two or three days after birth in most cases. The infection can produce blindness if it is not treated. In many countries, doctors prevent ophthalmia neonatorum by dropping silver nitrate or penicillin solution into the eyes of newborn babies. This procedure is required by most states of the United States. http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0856926.html Complications of childbirth affecting the newborn include infant blindness attributable to gonorrhea infection, now largely eliminated by routine administration of silver nitrate to the eyes; Marshall Tai-Pan wrote: > Hi d.linen, > > Sort of indirectly, not really for blindness. > > > Bless you, Bob Lee > > "d.linen" wrote: > >> They used to put silver nitrate in the eyes of newborns to prevent >> blindness. >> >> Rich Adams wrote: >> > >> > Can ANYONE list some commercial uses of silver other then the >> bandages at >> > silverlon and other then the burn centers use it? In regards to >> healing >> > that is... >> > >> > Respectfully, >> > Rich Adams >> > >> > -- >> > The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal >> silver. >> > >> > Instructions for unsubscribing may be found at: >> http://silverlist.org >> > >> > To post, address your message to: silver-list@eskimo.com >> > >> > Silver-list archive: >> http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html >> > >> > List maintainer: Mike Devour <mdev...@eskimo.com> > > -- > oozing on the muggy shore of the gulf coast > l...@fbtc.net >
