GLAD EYES

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 July 1927, Page 7

GLAD EYES

SIGHT-SAVING MAGNET. Splinters of iron and steel filings whirling through the air in the iron foundaries and other factories of Sydney are responsible for from 10 to 30 cases a day at the eye department of Sydney Hospital. Fragments of metal ranging in size from a hundredth part to a quarter of an inch are extracted from workers’ eyes almost every day. The operation of taking a splinter of steel from an eye without impairing the sight, is such a delicate matter that doctors have discarded their probes and tweezers for the more ingenious method of operating with a magnet. This instrument was installed at the hospital some time ago. It is capable of attracting a heavy pair of scissors io or 12 inches through the air. The result of placing such a powerful instrument over the eye of a patient, in which is embedded a scrap of metal, can be imagined. One end of the huge magnet tapers to a. fine point. This is placed against the eye. and the foreign body is drawn through the wound it caused. The doctor in charge of the apparatus said that the magnet was last used on a. “big job” four weeks ago, when a piece of steel half an inch long was extracted from the back of a man’s eye. The patient was a carpenter, ami the end of his chisel had snapped off and lodged in his eye.